Malaysians go to the polls on May 9 
PUTRAJAYA, April 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysians go to the polls on Wednesday May 9.
Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah, when announcing the date today, said nomination for the 14th general election is on Saturday April 28 and early voting, on Saturday May 5.
"The campaign period has been set for 11 days, from Nomination Day to 11.59 pm on Tuesday May 8," he said at a press conference, carried live over RTM, at the EC headquarters here. In the last general election, in 2013, the campaign period was 15 days.
Polling on May 9 is about a week before Muslims begin their month-long Ramadan fast, expected to be on May 17.
Mohd Hashim said the date for the issue of the writ of election is tomorrow, Wednesday April 11.
Mohd Hashim said the EC would use the electoral rolls as of the fourth quarter of 2017 containing the names of 14,940,624 electors for the polls.
Of the number, 14,636,716 are regular electors, 300,255 early voters comprising military personnel and their spouses and police personnel and 3,653 absentee voters who are overseas.
Mohd Hashim said the estimated cost of conducting the 14th general election is RM500 million, and GE14 would involve 259,391 election workers.
He said the EC would provide 8,989 premises as polling centres which would have 28,995 polling streams.
The EC had appointed 222 returning officers to help conduct the general election, he said.
Mohd Hashim had earlier chaired a special meeting of the EC to determine the dates for GE14. The meeting comes in the wake of the dissolution of the 13th Parliament last Saturday, followed by the dissolution of the state legislative assemblies except Sarawak's.
At the time of the dissolution, the Dewan Rakyat comprised 132 representatives from the Barisan Nasional (BN), 36 from DAP, 28 from PKR, 13 from PAS, seven from Parti Amanah Negara, two from Parti Warisan Sabah, one each from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) and two Independents.
The number of seats up for contest in GE14 remains the same as in GE13, that is 222 parliamentary seats and 505 state seats.
Mohd Hashim said the EC received the declaration by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the dissolution of the 13th Parliament on April 7 as well as the official notification from the Dewan Rakyat Speaker as well as the official notifications on the dissolution of the relevant state assemblies from the respective speakers of the assemblies.
The legislative assemblies of all the states except Sarawak were dissolved as of April 9 in accordance with Clause 4, Article 55, of the Federal Constitution, he said, adding that the EC was required to conduct the general election within 60 days from the date of the dissolution.
Sarawak held its state election in May 2016.
Mohd Hashim said the GE14 electoral rolls would be sold from April 16 and electors could check for their polling centres on the EC website at www.spr.gov.my or through the MySPR Semak application or by calling 03-88927018 or sending an SMS to 15888.
He also said that the EC had invited 14 countries to send international observers to GE14.
They comprise representatives of election management bodies from the ASEAN, Commonwealth, Asian and European countries as well as a study and support centre for the Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre (MCSC) based in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
"The EC has also appointed representatives of 14 NGOs and universities as local observers for GE14, beginning from Nomination Day until the results of the election are announced," he said.
Mohd Hashim said the international and local observers would be allowed to conduct their observation in the nomination centres, early voting centres, polling centres, vote-counting centres and vote-tallying centres.
In this regard, he said, the EC does not accord recognition to any other organisation or individual other than those it had appointed to monitor and observe GE14.
He reminded that the closing date for the application for postal voting in the country for the Form 1A category is April 28 and for the Form 1C category, April 23.
Mohd Hashim said the EC would make announcements from time to time on other matters pertaining to the general election.
-- BERNAMA
