A total of 2,801 early voters for the Balakong and Seri Setia by-elections have begun casting their votes as of 8am today.

According to the Election Commission statistics, only 31 of these were early voters in Balakong, while the majority of 2,770 were registered in Seri Setia.

All of the early voters in Balakong are police personnel, and they are casting their votes at the tarmac of Seri Kembangan Police Quarters. The early voting centre will remain open from 8am till noon.

In Seri Setia, the early voters comprise 2,597 military personnel and their spouses, as well as 173 police personnel.

The early voting process for the military personnel and their spouses is taking place in the Ababil Hall at the Subang Naval Base, while for the police personnel, at the Police SMS Complex in Shah Alam.

Both the early voting centres for Seri Setia will open from 8am to 5pm.

Once the voting process is completed, the ballot papers will be kept at the police lock-up and counted at their respective ballot counting centres on the night of Sept 8.

There is a straight fight in both by-elections, namely between Pakatan Harapan candidate Wong Siew Ki and MCA’s Tan Chee Teong in Balakong, and between Halimey Abu Bakar (Harapan) and Dr Halimah Ali (PAS) in Seri Setia.

Hoping for better turnout

Also present to take a closer look at the early voting process in Balakong was Kajang police chief ACP Ahmad Dzaffir Mohd Yussof and EC deputy chairperson Othman Mahmood.

In addition, the two candidates, Pakatan candidate Harapan Wong Siew Ki and Tan Chee Teong from MCA, were also present at the polling centre.

Othman said the early voting process in the Balakong by-election today went smoothly because it involved one of the smallest numbers of registered voters.

He also expressed optimism that the percentage of voter turnout at the twin by-elections would be better than the Sungai Kandis state by-election on Aug 4, and urged all voters in the two state constituencies to come out and exercise their right to vote.

"In terms of security, no problems were encountered, and we give our assurance that everything will run smoothly and safely because the police are on standby 24 hours,” he told reporters today.

The Balakong by-election was called following the death of incumbent Eddie Ng in an accident on July 20, while the Seri Setia’s comes after the death of incumbent Shaharuddin Badaruddin of cancer on Aug 2.

Balakong and Seri Setia each has 62,219 and 52,650 registered voters, respectively.

Polling takes place on Saturday.

- Bernama