The Election Commission (EC) said today it expects voter turnout for the Sarawak polls to be as high as 75 per cent when the state heads to the ballot boxes tomorrow.
Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof seemed upbeat there would be a surge in the turnout, noting a record 213 candidates are contesting all 71 state seats this round without a single person pulling out from the running.
“The EC has seen the political parties are so excited; 213 candidates and not even a single one has withdrawn,” he told a news conference here this morning.
“There are 41 independent candidates, it’s a record never seen before in history. Based on that the serious campaigning that’s been going on, we expect the percentage of turnout will increase to within the range of 65 to 75 per cent,” he said.
Abdul Aziz noted there has been a marked slide over the years since the first state election in 1969, which still holds the record for the highest turnout at 74.1 per cent.
In the last state polls held in 2006, the EC recorded the lowest turnout — at only 63.2 per cent.
Abdul Aziz anticipates announcing the results by 11 tomorrow night if voting goes well and without incident.
“If nothing exceptional, extraordinary happens — and I hope they will be peaceful — the latest will be 11pm. The earliest, 9pm,” the election chief said.
The ballots for all 71 state seats will be tallied at the EC office on Level 11 of the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar here once voting, which starts at 8am, closes at 5pm.
However, Abdul Aziz told reporters there were some polling centres that would close early tomorrow.
One such centre that will close at 9am is at Rumah Panjang TK Pa’ Berang in the state seat of Ba’ Kelalan, he said.
“This is because there are only 20 voters there,” he explained.
Abdul Aziz advised voters to cast their ballots early to avoid getting caught in the forecasted evening rain.
He also reminded all those involved in the election process to keep a cool head and avoid giving trouble to the 25,000 election officers on duty tomorrow.
“I don’t want a repeat of Sibu,” he said repeatedly, referring to the heated by-election won by the DAP last year.
He named Kota Sentosa, Pending and Batu Lintang as among the hottest seats being contested in the state.
