Early voting in Sarawak election has begun, with officials reporting more than 20 percent polling by 10 am. As many as 24,604 voters, mainly consisting of police and military personnel, will cast their votes at 79 polling centres on Tuesday.
"The voting centres are packed with uniformed personnel and their spouses with some bringing along their children," Election Commission chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah said, according to the Malay Mail.
The total number of voters doesn't include Bukit Kota and Bukit Sari seats which were won uncontested by Barisan Nasional candidates on nomination day, April 25.
The early votes will not be counted, but will be collected and kept in police lockups instead. The counting process of these ballots will start at 4 pm on May 7.
Three constituencies have only one early voter each. One voter will be having a voting stream only to himself at the police headquarters at Kota Samarahan in Sadong Jaya, another at Simunjang, Gedong, and the third at Tabuan Jaya, Demak Laut. Apart from the three voting clerks normally assigned to a stream, each of these streams will be served by a returning officer.
Three voting centres will be opened from 8am to 2pm. These three centres be reached by road. Thirty-three of the 79 voting centres will close at 2pm and the rest will end the voting procedure at 5pm.
According to The Star, the electoral roll shows that Stakan constituency has the highest number of early voters with 7,055. This is followed by Bukit Sentosa (3,163), Nangka (3,043), Batu Kawah (1,241) and Sri Aman (1,075).
For the 11th Sarawak state election, a total of 1,113,522 registered voters are eligible to cast their votes. The Sarawak State Legislative Assembly consists of a total number of 82 contesting seats which is followed by the 11 new seats created after the redelineation exercise.
