PUTRAJAYA: The Election Commission (EC) has estimated the upcoming state elections in Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan to cost RM420 million.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh said a total of 153,760 officers will be appointed to handle the election process in the six states, where a total of 173 nomination centres and 186 official vote-tallying centres will be opened.

Voters in the six states will cast their votes at 3,450 voting centres, involving a total of 17,425 polling streams, he told a press conference here today, adding that the polling centres would include 26 with 377 channels for early voters.

Earlier, he announced that polling for the six state elections will be conducted simultaneously on Aug 12 and the nomination day is on July 2

Meanwhile, Abdul Ghani said about 9.77 million voters are eligible to vote in the six state elections, with 9.67 million of them ordinary voters and the others include soldiers and their spouses (49,660 people); police personnel and their spouses (47,728) and overseas absentee voters (1,727).

Referring to the age group of the voters, Abdul Ghani said 661,905 people are between 20 and 20, while 28,991 people are aged 90 and above.

He said voters can check their polling location and voting channels from July 17 at the link http://mysprsemak.spr.gov.my or the SPR hotline at 03-88927018/7218/7124 or through the MySPR Semak application.

--BERNAMA