Nomination for GE13 closes

Nomination of candidates for the 13th General Election (GE13) closed at 10 am today at the 222 centres nationwide after having been open for an hour to accept nominations for the 222 parliamentary and 505 state seats up for contest.

For the first time in a general election, the nomination process was completed early because the usual objection period and withdrawal of candidacy have been done away with.

Preliminary reports indicated that the nomination process throughout the country was completed peacefully without any untoward incident.

The Election Commission (EC) expects the nomination results to be known by noon.

The EC has scheduled a news conference at its headquarters in Putrajaya where it will release the statistics on the nomination, including the total number of candidates and contesting parties, independent candidates, the number of male and female candidates, and the youngest and oldest candidates.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is Umno president and Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, submitted his nomination papers at the nomination centre at the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Convention Hall in Pekan at 9.08 am. He is defending the Pekan parliamentary seat he has held since 1976.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin submitted his nomination papers at the nomination centre at the Pagoh Sports Complex at 9.30 am. He is defending the Pagoh parliamentary seat he has held since 1978.

The EC has set April 30 for early voting and May 5 for the usual polling, leaving the candidates with 15 days from today to campaign.

A total of 13,268,002 people are eligible to vote in this general election, of whom 275,341 are early voters.