TAPAH: Voting for the Ayer Kuning state by-election has officially ended after all polling centres closed at 6 pm today.

Voting at all but one of the 19 voting centres - at Sekolah Kebangsaan Toh Tandewa Sakti, which closed earlier at 4 pm - stopped at 6 pm, and ballot boxes from all 63 channels are being moved to the vote counting centre at Dewan Merdeka here.

The official results of the by-election, called after assemblyman Ishsam Shahruddin died of a heart attack on Feb 22, are expected to be announced by the Election Commission (EC) as early as 9 pm tonight.

The commission had announced that 54 per cent of the 31,281 registered voters had cast their votes as of 4 pm today, while 93.4 per cent of 500 police personnel and their spouses eligible for early voting had voted at two centres on Tuesday.

Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Dr Mohamad Yusri Bakir is taking on Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Abd Muhaimin Malek and Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) Bawani KS in a three-corner fight.