Sarawak state election fixed for May 7

KUCHING: The Election Commission (EC) has set May 7 as the polling date for the 11th Sarawak state election, while candidate nomination has been fixed for April 25.

The announcement was made by EC chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

May 3 has been fixed for early voting.

Speaking to reporters at the Merdeka Palace Hotel, Hashim said there were a total of eligible voters 1,138,650 voters in the 82 state seats.

“Of which 1,113,522 are regular voters and 25,022 are absent voters such as police and military officers who will be eligible for early voting. The balance 106 are postal from foreign countries,” he said.

The voter registry will be released on Apr 22 on the EC website, while hard copies will be available from April 23.

Hashim added that the closing date for international postal votes is April 25 while the last day for postal voting for police, military and media officials within the country is April 27.

He said 1,879 premises would be used for polling with 20,811 officers monitoring the process, adding that an estimated RM135.6mil would be needed for the election.

Hashim stressed that the decision on the election dates had only been made on Thursday and were not influenced by any party.

“We only had the meeting this morning to decide on the dates and that is why you needed to wait this long,” he said.

On Tan Sri Adenan Satem mentioning the date April 25 on Wednesday, Hashim said that there was no prior communication with the Chief Minister.

“Him announcing the 25th before this, maybe he felt that it was a good date. But the dates announced by us were not given by any political party,” he said.

The Sarawak State Assembly was dissolved on April 11.

Source : The Star Online Nation Highlights http://ift.tt/1qqAS6E