PONTIAN (Nov 16) Two of the contesting candidates in the Tanjung Piai Parliamentary by-election fulfilled their responsibility as registered voters in the constituency by being among the first to cast their votes.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Karmaine Sardini arrived at the polling centre at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Telok Kerang, near here, at about 7.45am and was accompanied by his younger brother, Safeei Sardini.

On arrival at the location, Karmaine went into the school building and headed to polling stream 2 to cast his vote.

Met by reporters after casting his vote, Karmaine said he is getting nervous to wait for the result which will be announced tonight.

Meanwhile, Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng arrived at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Yu Ming 1 and 2 in Pekan Nanas at 7.40am to cast his vote.

He was accompanied by his wife, Datin Seri Lim Joo Hon, who is also a registered voter in Tanjung Piai.

There are 52,471 registered voters in the Tanjung Piai Parliamentary constituency.

The by-election is called following the death of incumbent MP Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik on Sept 21 due to heart complications.

Besides Karmaine and Wee, four other candidates are contesting for the seat.

They are Gerakan candidate Wendy Subramaniam, Parti Barisan Jemaah Islamiah (Berjasa) president Datuk Dr Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz and two Independent candidates, Dr Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abd Ghaffar. All four of them are not registered voters in Tanjung Piai.

The by-election is the ninth since the last general election in May last year.

Last Tuesday, 91 percent of the 280 early voters, comprising police personnel, had cast their votes at the Perkep building of the Pontian district police headquarters.

A total of 27 polling centres, involving 125 streams, are now open until 5.30pm today for voters in Tanjung Piai to vote for their new elected representative.

Of the 27 polling centres, 11 are in the Pekan Nanas State constituency and he remaining 16 in the Kukup State constituency.