Voting starts in Sabah

Voting starts in Sabah

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Voters in a constituency in Malaysia's Sabah state went to the polls on Saturday in a by-election for a state assembly seat seen as a test for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ruling coalition.

The official Bernama news agency reported a fairly large turnout at polling stations in the Likas constituency in the east Malaysian state on Borneo Island.

The by-election was called after a court annulled a 1999 electoral victory for the ruling National Front coalition because the electoral roll was found to contain the names of non-existent voters.

The by-election will not threaten Mahathir's rule or that of his coalition at either the state or federal levels, where it enjoys big majorities, but it is, nevertheless, being seen as a test for the ruling coalition.