EC confident voting on a Thursday will not affect voter turnout

Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof expects the voter turnout to be more than 70 per cent on that day.

"The choice of Thursday for voting is because most of the residents in this constituency are farmers and fishermen while only a small number are salaried workers," he told a news conference after the nomination of candidates for the by-election, here, today.

Also present were his deputy Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah, EC secretary Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh and the returning officer Mohd Sobri Ramli.

The state constituency has 24,039 registered voters including 109 early voters.

Meanwhile, the EC has appointed three groups of independent observers for the by-election comprising three individuals each from the Malaysian Youth Council and Persatuan Naskhah-Naskhah Kedaulatan Melayu Malaysia and two from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia who will note down the offences committed during the by-election campaign.

The EC has also appointed three enforcement teams who will remove prohibited campaign materials from the scene and these teams will work together with the police and local authorities.

Abdul Aziz said the EC was spending RM600,000 on the by-election and 436 workers were hired for the tasks involved.

He said 12 voting centres with 45 streams would be opened on polling day.

The Pengkalan Kubor by-election will see a three-cornered contest involving Barisan Nasional candidate Mat Razi Mat Ail, Wan Rosdi Wan Ibrahim from PAS and Independent candidate, Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary.

The by-election is held following the death of assemblyman Datuk Noor Zahidi Omar, 57, from liver cancer on Aug 20.