Melaka polls: 240 Polling centres across state open simultaneously at 8 am

MELAKA: A total of 240 ordinary polling centres, with 1,213 polling streams, for the 16th Melaka state election opened simultaneously at 8 am today, allowing voters cast their ballots and elect a state government for the next term.

The Election Commission (EC) said a total of 675,166 ordinary voters were eligible to cast their ballots to elect representatives for the 28 state constituencies, with voter turnout expected to reach 70 per cent.

Polling today is scheduled to continue until 6pm, following the end of the 14-day campaigning period at 11.59 pm last night.

Overall, a total of 687,697 registered voters are eligible to vote in this election, including 12,531 military personnel, their spouses and police personnel who had cast their ballots during early voting on Tuesday.

Early voting, which involved 31 polling centres, recorded a physical turnout of 9,417 voters, or 94.96 per cent of the 9,917 eligible voters, while another 2,614 voted by post.

A total of 79 candidates from various political parties and independents are contesting the 28 state seats in this election, following the nomination process on Oct 31.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) has the highest number of candidates at 24, followed by Barisan Nasional (BN) with 23, Parti Bersama Malaysia (16), Bersatu (seven), Perikatan Nasional (PN) (five), Parti Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (one) and three independent candidates.

The election was called following the dissolution of the 15th Melaka State Legislative Assembly on Sept 23, with the consent of Melaka Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Mohd Ali Rustam.

In the 15th Melaka State Election held on Nov 20, 2021, BN won 21 of the 28 state seats, while PH secured five and PN two. — BERNAMA