KUCHING: The Election Commission (EC) has set Dec 18 as Polling Day for the much awaited 12th Sarawak state election (PRN-12).
EC chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh in announcing this on Wednesday (Nov 24) said Nomination Day would be on Dec 6 while early polling would be held on Dec 14.
“The EC received an official notification from the Speaker of the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN) in relation to the declaration of the dissolution of the 11th Sarawak DUN on Nov 3.
“Accordingly, the EC held a special meeting today and decided that the 12th Sarawak state election needs to be held to fill the vacancies of the 82 DUN seats following the dissolution of the 11th Sarawak DUN,” he said in a press conference at Hilton Hotel here yesterday.
He said that campaigning would be held over 12 days starting after the declaration of the contesting candidates on Dec 6 until 11.59pm on Dec 17.
“To carry out the process of the 12th Sarawak election, the EC has appointed 82 election managing officers to be assisted by 249 assistant managing officers.
“Meanwhile, to monitor all election campaign activities during the campaign period, the EC has also established 155 enforcement teams, which are composed of representatives from the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), local authorities, and representatives of the contesting candidates,” said Abdul Ghani.
He said a total of 82 nomination and vote counting centres would be used.
To facilitate the nomination process, he called on prospective candidates who wished to contest in the election to fill and make a preliminary review of the form with the managing officers or Sarawak State Election Office before nomination day.
“Aside from that, prospective candidates are also encouraged to make deposit payments earlier. This is to ensure that all nomination processes can be completed smoothly,” he said.
He also reminded prospective candidates to submit their duly completed nomination papers at the nomination centre designated by EC on Nomination Day.
Meanwhile, a total of 46,565 officers will be appointed to handle the 12th Sarawak election process. There will be 1,866 regular polling centres comprising 3,555 polling stations/channels and 85 early voting centres comprising 111 early polling stations/channels.
“The total number of polling stations is 1,951 with 3,666 polling channels. The 12th Sarawak state election is estimated to require an allocation of RM150 million,” he said.
He said 346 regular polling centres would be open on polling day from 7.30am to 5pm while the remaining 1,520 centres would be open according to the gazetted time.
Abdul Ghani said 11 early polling centres would be open from 8am to 12 noon, 20 from 8am to 2pm, and the remaining 54 early voting centres would be open from 8am to 5pm.
“The electoral rolls (DPPR) that will be used for the 12th Sarawak election is the latest voter register which was updated on Nov 2 this year.
“The voter register contains 1,252,014 registered voters consisting of the 1,228,858 ordinary voters, 12,585 military personnel and spouses, 10,458 PGA police personnel and spouses as well as 113 Overseas Absentee Voters (PTH). The DPPR will be sold from Dec 1,” he said.
He said voters could check the register to get information on polling centres, voting channels, and their number through the EC portal (pengundi.spr.gov.my), by contacting 03-88927018, or through the MySPR Semak application. The checks can be done starting Dec 1.
