Balingian by-election: 60 percent cast their votes as at noon

The by-election for the Balingian state seat recorded election history in the country when the number of voters who cast their votes in the morning reached 60 percent or 8,014 voters as at noon on Saturday.

Election Commission (EC) Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said such a high voter turnout had never been recorded in any general election or by-election previously including in the Kajang by-election.

"The turnout at the Kajang by-election at 12 noon was only 40 per cent but for the Balingian by-election, the turnout at 11am was 53 percent or 7,085 voters, this is very good historically," he said at a media conference, here on Saturday.

"If the trend continues, we are confident that when the polling centres close this evening, we will reach the target of 80 percent set by EC," he said.

The Balingian state constituency has 13,233 registered voters.

He said the election process in the morning went smoothly without any untoward incident or provocation.

"There were technical issues such as a Muslim voter using another name but the name on the Mykad was different, and there was a voter whose identity card was damaged but remembered the identity card number, this was successfully resolved," he said.

He said the EC was also investigating the claim by a voter who came to cast his vote but his name was not in the electoral roll although he had voted in the same constituency twice previously.

"We will check thoroughly whether his claim was correct or false. Usually, the name of a voter is rarely removed from the electoral roll or transferred to another place," Abdul Aziz added.