The Election Commission (EC) today announced that vote counting in the Ba'Kelalan state by-election will only take place at tomorrow after all but one polling stations closed balloting this afternoon.

The decision was made after polling in Long Lellang, a village in the remote Bario Highlands, had to be put off to tomorrow after ballot boxes and ballot papers failed to get there in time.

Malaysiakini has learnt that an EC team was unable to take off by Nuri helicopter from Bario for Long Lellang due to bad weather.

Long Lellang, a tiny village southwest of Bario, is located in the upper reaches of the Baram river. This remote highland area in northern Sarawak can only be reached by air because of lack of road links.

However, the weather has been fine in other parts of the constituency - which borders Indonesia's Kalimantan - with initial reports indicating that the voter turnout in some areas was as high as between 60 and 70 percent. Voting in the polling stations closed at 2pm.

EC officials had earlier announced that the votes - minus those from Long Lellang - would be counted today with the official result to be announced tomorrow. However, an EC spokesperson later told reporters at the vote tallying centre in Lawas that counting would now be done tomorrow instead.

He added that ballot boxes which are being transported by road, boat and air from the various polling districts at the end of today's voting in 33 polling stations would be kept under guard at the Lawas police station.

Representatives of both the candidates - Barisan Nasional's Nelson Balang Rining and his sole challenger, Independent Baru Bian - will be keeping a vigil at the police station tonight to ensure that the ballot boxes are not tampered with.

A spokesperson for the Independent camp told malaysiakini that Baru is going to the station to inspect the cell where the ballot boxes are to be kept, and to secure it with his own padlock.

EC officials, at a meeting with the candidates and their representatives at 2.30pm, dismissed claims that they were pressured by certain politicians into postponing the vote counting.

By 4pm, most the ballot boxes had arrived at the Lawas Town Hall - where the vote counting was originally scheduled to take place today - to be later transferred to the police station.

Close fight expected

Baru had queried why it was necessary to postpone the vote counting since only one polling station, which has 157 registered voters, is being affected by the delay in ballot boxes. Ba'Kelalan has 7,896 registered voters.

No reason was given at the meeting with EC officials, except that they wanted all the votes to be counted at the same time and this means waiting for the voters in Long Lellang to cast their ballots tomorrow.

Polling in the remote village will take place from 8am to 10.30am tomorrow, and their ballot boxes should reach Lawas by 2pm when vote counting is due to begin.

According to his spokesperson, Baru had informed EC officials that he would acquiesce to the request. Meanwhile, BN's legal representative Barry Baru too has backed the EC decision.

The BN candidate, Nelson Balang Rining, was not present at this afternoon's meeting as he was flying to Long Lellang to do last-minute campaigning.

According to several political pundits, the postponement appears unusual and it could point to a very close result in this hotly contested by-election.

It is believed that the EC does not want the unofficial results - should the counting is done tonight - to influence tomorrow's voting in Long Lellang in the event of a close fight.

While BN's Nelson has described his chances as 'above average', Baru said his 'guts feeling is that he is going to win.'

The constituency has a largely Orang Ulu Christian-majority electorate, with the Iban forming the second biggest vote bank, possibly playing the balancing role.

The Ba'Kelalan state seat fell vacant following the death of its assemblyman, BN's Dr Judson Sakai Tagal, in a helicopter crash in July.