MELAKA: Polling for the 16th Melaka state election officially ended at 6pm Saturday (Nov 14) as all 240 regular polling centres, comprising 1,213 streams across the state, closed.
According to the Election Commission (EC) dashboard at 6.05pm, 70.59%, or more than 472,377, of the 669,211 ordinary voters had cast their ballots.
In total, there are 675,166 ordinary voters in this state election, with 5,955 of them voting by post.
EC chairman Datuk Seri Ramlan Harun said at a press conference Saturday morning that the commission was targeting a voter turnout of between 70% and 75%, adding that full results for all 28 state constituency seats are expected by midnight.
Checks by Bernama at several polling centres found that voting proceeded calmly and smoothly since polls opened at 8am, with fair weather across the state despite an earlier afternoon thunderstorm forecast by the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia).
The 16th Melaka state election used the electoral roll updated up to Sept 22, which comprises 687,697 registered electors, including 12,531 military personnel and their spouses, as well as police personnel who cast their ballots during early voting on Tuesday.
Early voting across 31 polling centres saw 9,417, or 94.96%, of the 9,917 early voters casting their ballots in person, while 2,614 individuals voted by post.
Attention now turns to the results to see which 28 of the 79 contesting candidates will win the people's mandate.
In this state election, Pakatan Harapan (PH) fielded the highest number of candidates with 24, followed by Barisan Nasional (BN) with 23, Parti Bersama Malaysia (16), Bersatu (seven), Perikatan Nasional (PN) (five), Parti Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (one) and three Independent candidates.
The state election was called following the dissolution of the 15th Melaka state legislative assembly on Sept 23, after receiving the consent of the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Melaka, Tun Mohd Ali Rustam.
In the 15th Melaka state election on Nov 20, 2021, BN won 21 of the 28 state seats, while Pakatan won five and Perikatan two. - Bernama
