16,877 police, military personnel and spouses in early voting tomorrow

SABAH POLLS | Early voting for the 16th Sabah state election involving 16,877 security forces personnel and their spouses will be held at 55 polling centres tomorrow, the Election Commission (EC) said today.

EC secretary Ikmalrudin Ishak said of this number, 7,487 are armed forces personnel and their spouses, and 9,390 are from the police.

"For this purpose, the early voting centres will be open from 8am to 5pm," he said in a statement.

He said guidelines to curb the spread of Covid-19 will be enforced during early voting, including physical distancing, wearing of face masks, use of hand sanitiser, taking of body temperature, attendance taking.

Read more: Sabah Decides 2020: Making sense of the players, parties and battles

Agents of candidates and election observers appointed by EC will monitor the early voting process, which will be streamed live on the EC Facebook page, he added.

"All ballot boxes for early voting will be kept at police lock-ups. The ballots will only be counted on Sept 26 beginning 4pm.

"The counting of votes will be conducted at counting centres designated by EC and the vote-counting process will be witnessed by agents of the candidates,” he said.

The state election is being held following the dissolution of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly on July 30.

Some 1.12 million voters will go to the polls on Saturday.

- Bernama

Follow Malaysiakini's coverage of the Sabah state election here.