SEREMBAN, April 12 — The voters of Rantau go to the polls tomorrow to elect their representative to the Negri Sembilan Legislative Assembly.
They will choose one of the four contestants — Dr S. Streram, 60, of Pakatan Harapan (PH), Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, 63, of Barisan Nasional (BN) and independents R. Malarvizhi, 51, a housewife, and Mohd Nor Yassin, 67, a former lecturer.
A total of 20,793 voters are eligible to cast their ballot papers at 14 polling stations with 53 polling streams which will be open from 8 am to 5.30 pm. Eleven voters have sent their ballots by post.
Dr Streram is expected to vote at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Tamil) Rantau; Mohamad, who is Umno deputy president, and Malarvizhi at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Chung Hua while Mohd Nor will not vote as he is registered to vote in Gemencheh.
A total of 515 Election Commission (EC) workers will be on duty during the polls tomorrow.
The Rantau state constituency has 20,926 voters comprising 20,804 ordinary voters, four absentee voters and 118 early voters.
Ninety-six per cent of the 110 early voters cast their ballots on Tuesday. Eight of the early voters are postal voters.
The total number of voters comprises 11,615 Malays (55.51 per cent); 3,863 Chinese (18.46 per cent); 5,441 Indians (26 per cent); and seven others (0.03 per cent).
The EC expects the result of the polls to be announced by 10 pm tomorrow.
The Rantau by-election has been necessitated by the Election Court declaration of Mohamad’s unopposed victory in the 14th general election (GE14) null and void.
In GE14, Mohamad was declared the winner of the seat after Dr Streram was prohibited from entering the nomination centre to submit his nomination papers because he did not have a pass issued by the EC. — Bernama
