Johor polls: Voting ends, ballot-counting process begins

- Bernama

JOHOR BARU: Polling for the 15th Johor election on has ended after all 1,021 polling centres closed at 6pm on Saturday (March 12).

After the polling stations closed, all ballot boxes from 4,638 voting channels were taken to 56 vote-tallying centres, and the official results will be announced tonight.

A total of 36,729 postal ballot papers were issued by the Election Commission (EC), while early voting on Tuesday (March 8) saw a turnout of about 87% or 18,625 voters comprising members of the security forces and their spouses.

A total of 239 candidates from 15 political parties are vying for 56 seats in the Johor State Legislative Assembly.

A total of 2,539,606 regular voters of the 2,597,742 voters registered for this election were eligible to vote. As at 4pm, half of the regular voters have cast their ballots.

A total of 173,177 individuals aged 18 to 20 were eligible to vote in this election, marking the first time youth in this age group are voting.

This followed the passing of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 in March 2019, which lowers the eligible voting age from 21 to 18 and the implementation of automatic voter registration.

In the 14th General Election, Pakatan Harapan won the mandate to form the Johor government after winning 36 state seats, DAP (14), Parti Amanah Negara (nine), PKR (five) and Bersatu (eight).

Barisan Nasional won 19 seats while PAS obtained only one.

However, the Pakatan government in Johor collapsed after Bersatu pulled out from coalition at federal level on Feb 24, 2020.

Bersatu then teamed up with Barisan and PAS to form the Johor Perikatan Nasional government with 29 seats. – Bernama