EC targets 95 per cent turnout for Melaka early voting

MELAKA: The Election Commission is targeting a 95 per cent turnout for early voting in the Melaka election today.

Its chairman, Datuk Seri Ramlan Harun, said the turnout stood at 53.225 per cent as at 10.35am, with 5,286 military and police personnel having cast their votes.

He said a total of 9,769 military personnel and 2,792 police personnel were eligible to vote in the early voting today.

"Early voting has begun at 31 polling centres across Melaka, involving 50 streams.

"We hope the trend will continue until this evening and that turnout will reach 95 per cent," he said after inspecting the early voting process at the SK Terendak polling centre here today.

Ramlan said the EC was satisfied with the voting process so far, which had started at all 31 polling centres involving 50 streams statewide.

He said some polling centres would close in stages, depending on the number of registered voters at each stream.

"Nineteen polling centres are scheduled to close at noon, another three about 2pm, while nine will close about 5pm," he said.

In a related development, Ramlan said 237 election offences had been reported to the EC's monitoring team as at last night.

"The reported offences involved matters related to campaigning, flags, campaign materials and other issues. These were minor offences under election regulations," he said.

He added that no major incidents had been reported throughout the campaign so far.

"We have a few more days to go, and I hope this trend will continue.

"I urge all parties to continue campaigning in a responsible and orderly manner without causing any disturbances," he said.