HULU SELANGOR: A total of 18 polling centres with 74 voting streams for the Kuala Kubu Baharu (KKB) state by-election opened simultaneously at 8 am today.

All the polling stations will be open until 6 pm, except for Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Bukit Fraser, which will close at 2 pm. It caters for only 40 voters.

A total of 39,269 voters are eligible to cast their ballots today.

Vote tallying will be done at the Dewan Serbaguna dan Kompleks Sukan Daerah Hulu Selangor here and the official results are expected to be announced at 10 pm.

The voting process will be managed by 760 Election Commission (EC) workers while 1,133 police personnel will be deployed for polling day duty.

Last Tuesday, 97 per cent or 769 police and military personnel and their spouses cast their ballots in early voting.

It was held at two polling centres - Signals Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, Camp Erskine and Dewan Serbaguna Maktab Polis Diraja Malaysia - which have three polling streams.

The by-election is a four-cornered fight involving Pang Sock Tao (Pakatan Harapan), Khairul Azhari Saut (Perikatan Nasional), Hafizah Zainuddin (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) and Nyau Ke Xin (Independent).

All the candidates will not be voting as they are not registered voters in the constituency.

The seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent Lee Kee Hiong, 58, of DAP on March 21 due to cancer.

In the state election in August last year, Lee defeated challengers from Perikatan Nasional, Parti Rakyat Malaysia and the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance with a majority of 4,119 votes to retain the seat for the third consecutive term.

-- BERNAMA