The turnout among young voters in the Pelangai state by-election at 11 am was encouraging, said Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh.

He said this is a good development compared to several previous by-elections.

“We can see that voters are coming early and waiting in long queues. In the past, young voters often came a little later. This shows that the enthusiasm of young people has changed,” he told reporters after visiting a polling station in Sekolah Menengah Felda Chemomoi today.

Abdul Ghani, meanwhile, said he was confident that turnout would reach the 70 per cent target when voting ends at 6pm.

“Insya Allah, the weather does not seem too hot. I am calling on all voters to exercise their right in the duration we have proposed,” he said.

The Pelangai by-election is seeing a three-cornered fight between Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Amizar Abu Adam, Kasim Samat of Perikatan Nasional (PN) and independent candidate Haslihelmy DM Zulhasni.

The by-election for the Pelangai state seat is the fourth being held after the 15th general election (GE15) on Nov 19 last year.

The first three by-elections held were for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat on Aug 12, and for the Pulai parliamentary seat and Simpang Jeram state seat, which took place simultaneously on Sept 9.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency