PAS’ Abdul Wahid Endut cast his vote at Sekolah Kebangsaan Pusat Chabang Tiga at 8.07am, together with his wife.

The other candidate is independent Azharuddin Mamat, who is a registered voter in the Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary area.

“I hope that voters will come out early. I hope that the fair weather is a sign of BN’s victory,” Wan Farid told reporters.

The by-election involves 36 polling stations and 143 polling streams. The constituency has 80,229 registered voters, including 1,302 postal voters. Voting is scheduled to end at 5pm.

The polling centres are located at the Yayasan Islam Terengganu alQuran and Fardu Ain learning centre in Jalan Hiliran as well as in schools and multipurpose halls around the city.

Voter turnout is quite good, and so far everything is calm. The weather was fair in the morning, but the Meteorological Department had forecast that there would be rain in the afternoon.

Traffic in the city was under control, with vehicles carrying party flags seen plying the streets, while police personnel were stationing themselves in strategic locations.

The police have deployed some 6,000 personnel throughout the by-election.

The Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death of Deputy Education Minister Datuk Razali Ismail on Nov 28.

In the 12th general election in March, Razali defeated Mohamad Sabu of PAS and independent candidate Maimun Yusuf with a 628-vote majority.

Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof earlier said the commission was hoping that this by-election would set records in everything from being the smoothest and most peaceful nomination and polling, to the highest voter turnout. He is expecting as high as 90% voter turnout, compared with 82.45% during the last general election.

He urged all contesting parties to follow the rules and regulations and not create any disturbance during the voting process.

- The Star -