SEREMBAN, April 13 — All 14 polling stations of the Rantau state by-election closed at 5.30pm after opening at 8am this morning.
According to the Election Commission, the turnout as at 4pm was 74 per cent.
Moments after the voting stations were closed, all ballot boxes from 53 streams would be brought to the tallying centre at the Multipurpose Hall of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) in Bandar Sri Sendayan, here for the counting of votes and the results are expected to be announced at 10pm.
The Rantau by-election today saw a four-cornered fight between Pakatan Harapan candidate Dr S. Streram, 60, Barisan Nasional candidate, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, 63, who was the former Mentri Besar of Negeri Sembilan and two independent candidates comprising housewife R. Malarvizhi, 51, and former lecturer Mohd Nor Yassin, 67.
Dr Streram voted at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Tamil) Rantau while Mohamad and Malarvizhi casted their ballots at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Chung Hua, this morning.
Mohd Nor, however, is not a voter of the constituency.
Rantau has 20,926 registered voters comprising 20,804 normal voters, four absentee voters and 118 early voters.
From the total, 55.51 per cent or 11,615 are Malay voters, Chinese (18.46 per cent or 3,863), Indians (26 per cent or 5,441) and others (0.03 per cent or seven).
The Rantau by-election is the seventh by-election after the 14th general election on May 9, 2018 with the first one in Sungai Kandis state seat on August 4, Balakong and Seri Setia state seats (September 8), Port Dickson parliamentary seat (October 13), Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat (January 26) and Semenyih state seat (March 2). — Bernama
