Polling in Malaysia's 13th General Election today closed at 5 pm.

A total of 8,245 polling centres were opened at 8 am throughout the country to enable 12,885,434 voters to cast their ballots.

Two centres in the Tungku state constituency and one in the Lahad Datu state constituency in Sabah closed earlier, at 3 pm.

The counting of votes is expected to begin at 5.30 pm and the tallying after that.

The first of the results is expected to be known at about 7.30 pm.

As of noon, 58.99 per cent of voters had cast their ballots nationwide in the 13th General Election today, the Election Commission reported.

A total of 8,245 polling centres have been opened throughout the country to enable 12,992,661 voters to cast their ballots. Some 272,387 voters, comprising mainly military and police personnel, had cast their ballots as early voters on April 30.

Most of the polling centres will remain open from 8 am to 5 pm.

In Melaka, state EC director Haelmy Mohd Hanifah said 169,807 or 40 per cent of the 424,519 voters had cast their ballots by noon.

He said voting was going on smoothly throughout the state.

In Penang, 59.04 per cent of the 834,711 voters had cast their ballots by 1 pm, according to state EC director Morat Pora.

In Perak, state EC director Ahmad Adli Abdullah reported that 30 per cent of the 1.36 million voters in the state had voted by 11 am.

In Perlis, 45.13 per cent of the 137,057 voters in the state had exercised their right by 12.30 pm.