Slowest seat in Melaka? A look at the Bandar Hilir vote

The three candidates for Bandar Hilir in the Melaka state election on November 14, 2026. — Picture from Facebook

By Malay Mail

First Published: Saturday, 14 Nov 2026 4:45 PM MYT

MELAKA, Nov 14 — Bandar Hilir recorded the lowest turnout among Melaka’s 28 state constituencies, at just under 56 per cent as of 4.30pm today.

The Election Commission’s (EC) real-time Voter Turnout Monitoring dashboard showed 67.78 per cent of ordinary voters statewide had cast their ballots, or 433,944 of 669,211 voters.

Serkam recorded the highest turnout at 74.09 per cent, putting it 20.72 percentage points ahead of Bandar Hilir.

Bandar Hilir has been occupying the bottom spot from the get-go when polling stations opened at 8am.

The seat has 23,042 registered voters, with women making up 52 per cent of voters and men 48 per cent.

Chinese voters make up about 73 per cent of the electorate, followed by Malays at 12.9 per cent, Indians at 6.4 per cent and others at 6.8 per cent.

It is a three-cornered fight between incumbent Leng Chau Yen of Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Jasmine Lok Huey Yee and Dr Mohd Nor Rashidi Ab Jalil of Parti Bersama Malaysia (Bersama). 

Leng, of DAP, won the seat in 2021 with a majority of 7,778 votes in a four-cornered contest. 

Turnout in the seat that year was 57.55 per cent, which today’s figure has yet to reach. 

Lok, a Melaka Historic City Council councillor, is contesting for MCA, which was given the seat late in the day by BN.

The two women debated each other earlier during the campaign period when  Leng accepted an invitation from Lok.

Voting continues until 6pm today, so a late stage spurt could still change the numbers as the EC aims to hit a turnout target of 70 per cent overall.