By Karen Bong, Shikin Louis & Christine Tianni
KUCHING, Nov 6: The Election Commission (EC) has fixed Dec 12 as polling day for the 13th Sarawak Election, with nomination day scheduled for Nov 28.
EC chairman Dato Sri Ramlan Harun said early voting would be held on Dec 8, while the election writ was issued today (Nov 6).
He announced the dates at a press conference following a special meeting to determine the key dates for the 2026 Sarawak Election, chaired by him at the Hilton Hotel here, today.
“We had received official notification from the Speaker of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly regarding the dissolution of the 19th State Legislative Assembly on Oct 26, 2026.
“Following the dissolution, the EC convened a special meeting today and decided that an election must be held to fill the vacancies in the State Legislative Assembly,” he said.
On the electoral roll (DPPR) to be used for the election, Ramlan said a total of 2,058,781 voters are eligible to cast their ballots.
Of this number, 2,034,373 are ordinary voters, while 13,575 comprise armed forces personnel and their spouses, and another 10,833 are police personnel, including General Operations Force (GOF) members, and their spouses.
For postal voting, applications for both domestic and overseas categories have been open since Oct 26.
The deadline for Category 1A applications, covering election personnel, EC members and officers, police personnel, military personnel and media practitioners, is Nov 25.
Meanwhile, applications under Category 1B, for Malaysian citizens residing overseas, and Category 1C, for agencies and organisations, must be submitted by Nov 20.
For postal voting, applications for all three categories must be submitted online through the EC portal at www.spr.gov.my.
Ramlan said the EC had appointed 82 returning officers, assisted by 305 assistant returning officers, to oversee the electoral process.
“To monitor campaign activities throughout the official campaign period, the EC will also establish 82 Election Campaign Enforcement Teams (PP-KPR), comprising representatives from the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), local authorities and candidates contesting in the election.
“The electoral roll for the 13th Sarawak Election comprises the latest register up to the September 2026 supplementary electoral roll, updated as of Oct 25, 2026,” he added.
In another development, Ramlan said the EC has decided to expand its pilot project involving the Optical Character Recognition Voter Attendance (OCRVA) system to all polling channels at every polling centre across all 82 State constituencies.
The system is intended to facilitate voter attendance recording during the election.
To encourage voter turnout, the EC will launch its ‘Jom Kita Undi’ campaign through various media platforms, including electronic media, social media announcements, public address systems and banners at strategic public locations.
The EC will deploy a total of 40,505 personnel to manage the election, which will involve 2,027 polling centres comprising 82 early voting centres with 106 polling channels and 1,945 ordinary polling centres with 4,482 polling channels.
The election is estimated to cost RM174.94 million, while 97 centres will be designated as nomination centres and official vote-tallying centres.
The 14-day campaigning period will begin after the announcement of candidates on Nov 28 and end at 11.59pm on Dec 11, the eve of polling day.
The EC also announced that the electoral roll for the election would be available for purchase from Nov 23, the same date voters can begin checking their polling information, including their polling centres, channels and serial numbers, through the MySPR Semak portal, its mobile application or hotline. — DayakDaily
