Polling centres closed, vote counting begins

MELAKA: The voting process for the Melaka state election, which began at 8 am today, ended with the closure of all the 217 polling centres at 5.30 pm.

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

Early voting was held last Nov 16, involving a total of 11,557 military personnel and the police, as well as their spouses.

A total of 31 early voting centers with 47 channels were opened for the purpose.

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 the 28 state seat in Melaka with Barisan Nasional (BN), Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) contesting for all the seats, Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) (five), Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional (IMAN) (one) and Independent (22).

The Melaka state election was called following the dissolution of the state assembly on Oct 4, following the action of four Assemblymen in withdrawing support for Chief Minister Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali.

-- BERNAMA