By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Oct 20: The 15th General Election (GE15) will be held on Nov 19 while the nomination date is set to take place on Nov 5, Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh announced today.
In a live broadcast, he said the general election will involve all 222 parliamentary seats throughout the country as well as 116 state seats in Pahang (42 state seats), Perak (59) and Perlis (15) and Sabah’s Bugaya state (N.66) by-election which will also be conducted simultaneously.
The EC received official notifications of dissolution of the 14th Parliament on Oct 11 and state assemblies of Pahang and Perlis on Oct 14 and Perak on Oct 17.
A by-election was due for Bugaya seat which fell vacant after its representative, Manis Muka Mohd Darah of Warisan, died of a kidney disease on Nov 17, 2020.
Early and postal voters can cast their ballots on Nov 15.
Abdul Ghani had earlier chaired a special two-hour meeting to decide the key dates at the EC’s headquarters in Putrajaya.
“A 14-day campaign will start on Nov 5 after the nomination process and last until 11.59pm on Nov 18 (Friday).
“To ensure the smooth process of the GE15 and N.66 by-election in Sabah, the EC has appointed 222 returning officers and 1,264 assistant returning officers for the general election,” he told a media conference at the EC Headquarters in Putrajaya today.
For the purpose of monitoring campaign activities throughout the election campaign period, the EC will set up 625 election task forces which will also comprise the representatives from the Royal Malaysia Police, local authorities and agents of candidates.
A total of 363,515 citizens will be appointed as poll workers at 9,536 voting centres and 39,318 voting streams.
Abdul Ghani said the country’s general election and Bugaya by-election will cost RM1.01 billion to conduct.
The electoral roll, which was updated on Oct 9, has a total of 20,905,366 eligible voters including soldiers, policemen, and individuals who were currently abroad.
Voters can check details such as voting centres and channels on the EC website at http://mysprsemak.spr.gov.my or call 03-88927018 / 03-88880040 or via the MySPR Semak application starting Oct 31 (Monday).
The official writ for the election will be issued today. — DayakDaily
