Melaka Polls: All polling centres closed, vote counting begins

MELAKA: The voting process for the Melaka state election, which began at 8am Saturday (Nov 20), ended at 5.30pm with all 217 polling centres now closed.

According to the electoral roll, there are 495,195 registered voters in Melaka with 476,037 of them ordinary voters.

The voting process was handled by a total of 12,290 election officials in 28 state constituencies.

Immediately after polling stations closed, the ballot boxes from the 1,109 channels were brought to the 28 counting centres here and official results will be announced by Election Commission (EC) chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh.

Early voting was held on Nov 16 involving a total of 11,557 military and police personnel together with their spouses.

A total of 31 early voting centres with 47 channels in operation.

There are also 7,601 postal voters for the Melaka state election.

In total, the number of polling centres for the state election is 248 with 1,156 channels.

A total of 112 candidates contested for 28 state seats in Melaka with Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan contesting all 28 seats, Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (five), Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional (one) and 22 Independents.

The Melaka state election was called following the dissolution of the state assembly on Oct 4, after four assemblymen withdrew support for former chief minister Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali. – Bernama