Voting closed today in Kuala Terengganu by-election seen as a test of the government's popularity, but the outcome remained in doubt with insiders saying the count was neck-and-neck.

"The whole process has been quite satisfactory. We are quite optimistic as of now," said PAS deputy president Nasaruddin Mat Isa, citing positive results from its exit polls.

"As of now we are optimistic," he told AFP .

kuala terengganu 2008 election results A senior official in Umno which leads the Barisan Nasional said one of the four state constituencies in the Kuala Terengganu electorate had fallen to PAS.

"In the other three areas it is neck-and-neck," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

There are four state contituencies in Kuala Terengganu - Wakaf Mempelam, Bandar, Ladang and Batu Buruk. Three of the four were won by PAS in the March 8, 2008 general elections.

An opinion poll by the Merdeka Centre research firm last week indicated support among majority Malays was split, and that the votes of the Chinese who make up 11.6 percent of the electorate could be decisive.

MCA, a party in the BN, said low turnout among Chinese who live outside the state could be positive for the government.

"There is a general perception that the outstation Chinese voters are anti-establishment, so low turnout from outstation voters may be good for BN," said MCA deputy president Chua Soi Lek.

However, PAS state assemblyman Che Abdullah Mat Nawi claimed a victory for the party in a second of the four constituencies, in downtown Kuala Terengganu, where many Chinese live.

PAS lost in the Bandar state constituency at the last general elections (see chart above).

Both key candidates confident

As they cast their votes, both candidates said they were optimistic of winning.

"I'm quite happy with the support shown by the Malay and Chinese voters," PAS candidate Mohammad Abdul Wahid Endut said as he stood alongside his wife and five of his nine children.

"Whether it turns into votes is another matter. I leave the outcome of this election to the voters and to Allah," he said.

BN candidate Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh also said he was confident voters would back him.

"I have faith in the voters, I know they will vote intelligently. They will vote for continuity, they will vote for BN," he said.

Supporters from both sides were out in force, swamping polling stations with a sea of green PAS posters and blue BN banners and chanting government and opposition slogans under the eye of a heavy police presence.

Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asian expert at the US-based Johns Hopkins University who observed the by-election, said that as voting closed insiders from both camps had said it was "way too close" to call.

"No one wants to make a prediction. They are cautious because it is going down to the final count," she said.

"The Chinese vote seems to be moving towards PAS but it's very divided."

The Kuala Terengganu seat, which Barisan Nasional won with a wafer-thin majority in the March 2008 elections, was vacated last November by the death of a deputy minister.