KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 ― The Election Commission (EC) has recorded a 44 per cent voter turnout as of noon in the Semenyih by-election, with about five hours left before the polling centres close.

A total of 53,411 people are eligible to vote in the by-election today which was called following the death of incumbent Pakatan Harapan (PH) assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor, from a heart attack on January 11.

The 24 polling centres, which opened at 8am, will close at 5.30pm.

The total number of eligible voters is based on the third quarter of the electoral roll for 2018 and updated until January 11, 2019, EC had said.

The commission is also expecting about 70 per cent voter turnout in this by-election, with the results expected to be announced before 10pm.

In the polls on May 9 last year, the turnout for Semenyih was at 88 per cent or 46,839 out of 53,257 eligible voters.

The vote tally centre is at Seri Cempaka Hall, Kajang Municipal Council in Saujana Impian, Kajang.

Muhammad Aiman Zainali of PH, Zakaria Hanafi (Barisan Nasional), Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul (Parti Sosialis Malaysia) and an independent candidate, Kuan Chee Heng, are contesting for the seat.

It is the sixth by-election after the 14th general election held in May last year. Three of them were state-by-election, namely Sungai Kandis on August 4 and Balakong and Seri Setia, simultaneously on September 8).

The other two were parliamentary by-elections for Port Dickson (October 13) and Cameron Highlands (January 26).