JOHOR BAHRU: A total of 61 polling centres with 362 streams opened simultaneously at 8 am today for the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram state by-elections.

They comprised 47 polling centres in the Pulai constituency and 14 in the Simpang Jeram constituency. All are scheduled to close at 6 pm.

Based on the latest data released by the Election Commission yesterday, 205,810 registered voters will be casting their ballots today, with 165,509 voters in Pulai and 40,301 in Simpang Jeram.

These voters will be electing new representatives to replace the late Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, who died on July 23.

On Sept 5, a total of 831 police officers and personnel carried out their civic duty as early voters for the Pulai by-election, which resulted in a 90 per cent turnout.

However, there was no early voting for the Simpang Jeram by-election.

Both by-elections are three-cornered contests between Pakatan Harapan (PH), Perikatan Nasional (PN) and independent candidates.

In Pulai, PH candidate Suhaizan Kaiat is facing Zulkifli Jaafar of PN and independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi, while in Simpang Jeram, PH's Nazri Abdul Rahman is taking on Dr Mohd Mazri Yahya of PN and independent candidate S. Jeganathan.

-- BERNAMA