MUKAH: Early voting takes place today between 8 am and 5 pm in the Balingian state by-election.
The 133 constituents who had registered to vote early are scheduled to cast their ballots at the multipurpose hall of the Mukah Police headquarters where one polling stream will be opened.
The ordinary polling is scheduled for Saturday, and the rest of the 13,366 voters will cast their ballots at 21 polling streams then.
Yussibnosh Balo, 48, of the Barisan Nasional (BN) is engaged in a straight fight with Abdul Jalil Bujang, 55, of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in the by-election, necessitated by the resignation of Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud on Feb 28 when he stepped down as the chief minister. Taib is now the Yang Dipertua Negeri.
In the Sarawak state elections in 2011, Taib retained the seat with a majority of 5,154 votes in a three-cornered contest which also involved Suriati Abdullah of PKR and independent candidate Datuk Salleh Jafaruddin. — BERNAMA