GE15: Polling completed, counting of ballots begins

KUALA LUMPUR: Polling has been completed in Malaysia's 15th General Election (GE15), and counting of the ballots has begun.

Polling centres opened at 7.30 am in Sabah and Sarawak and 8 am in the peninsula. They closed in stages between 11 am and 5.30 pm in Sabah and Sarawak and at 6 pm in the peninsula.

The results of the contests for 220 of the 222 parliamentary seats and 116 of the 117 state seats will be announced tonight as and when they are declared.

Polling in the Padang Serai parliamentary constituency in Kedah and the Tioman state constituency in Pahang has been postponed to Dec 7 following the death of a candidate in each of the two constituencies. The new date for nomination of candidates is Nov 24.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH-PKR) candidate for Padang Serai, incumbent M.Karupaiya, died on Wednesday, while the Perikatan Nasional (PN-PAS) candidate for Tioman died early today.

The voting in 11 polling centres in the Baram parliamentary constituency in Sarawak, on the other hand, was suspended due to adverse weather.

The 116 state seats are in Pahang (41 of 42), Perak (59) and Perlis (15), as well as the Bugaya state seat in Sabah, which faces a by-election that was postponed due to the emergency declared to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Election Commission (EC) the voter turnout had reached 70 per cent as at 4 pm.

-- BERNAMA