Three ballot boxes containing postal votes for the Sungai Bakap state by-election have been taken to the vote-tallying centre at the Jawi Multipurpose Hall in Taman Desa Jawi here. The ballot boxes were the earliest to be delivered by Election Commission (EC) personnel, reaching the vote-tallying centre at 6.09 pm today, after the close of polling. A total of 124 postal votes were received by the EC today. The polling process, which began at 8 am with the opening of nine polling centres, closed at 6 pm. A total of 39,151 voters were eligible to cast their ballots. The by-election is a straight fight between Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Dr Joohari Ariffin and Perikatan Nasional's Abidin Ismail. The seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent Nor Zamri Latiff of PAS on May 24 due to stomach inflammation. In the state election in August last year, Nor Zamri, who was Nibong Tebal PAS vice-chief, defeated PH candidate Nurhidayah Che Rose by a majority of 1,563 votes. Source: BERNAMA News Agency