Pulai by-election: Pakatan candidate urges voters to cast their ballots early to avoid evening showers

JOHOR BARU: Pakatan Harapan candidate for the Pulai parliamentary seat, Suhaizan Kayat, urges the voters to head to the polling centres early to avoid the wet weather forecast for later in the day.

The former Johor state speaker said he also hoped that the Election Commission’s (EC) target of having more than 70% voter turnout would also be realised.

“I was informed by police earlier that the voting process in all of the streams in Pulai is going well, and the traffic condition is also good.

“But my concern is the weather; as the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) has forecast, it will rain heavily in the evening.

“So I hope that all of the voters in Pulai will come out early and perform their duties, as there are no obstacles that are hindering them from doing so,” he said.

He said this after casting his vote at SK Seri Melati, Taman Melati, here on Saturday (Sept 9).

Earlier, Suhaizan, accompanied by his wife, Dr Norsham Idris, arrived at the polling centre at 8.50am and finished casting their vote at 9.03am.

He then spent some time meeting and greeting some of the voters at the polling centre before leaving.

Suhaizan is in a three-cornered fight against Perikatan Nasional Zulkifli Jaafar and independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi.

Earlier, Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh was reported as saying the voter turnout is expected to be over 70% for the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram state by-elections on Saturday.

This was based on voter turnout during the six Aug 12 state elections, which was quite low. There are a total of 166,653 voters registered in Pulai and 40,379 in Simpang Jeram.

There were 47 polling centres with 294 streams in the Pulai parliamentary constituency and 14 centres with 68 streams in the Simpang Jeram state constituency, which would open from 8am until 6pm.