SABAH will go to the polls on September 26 with nomination set for September 12, the Election Commission announced today.

Acting chairman Dr Azmi Sharom said 14 days have been allocated for campaigning, which will be governed by strict rules to prevent further Covid-19 infections.

The election will see contests in 73 seats in the Sabah assembly, which was dissolved on July 30 following concerns of crossovers by legislators formerly aligned to the Parti Warisan Sabah-led government.

The commission’s decision today comes even as the Kota Kinabalu High Court deliberates on an application by 33 reps challenging the dissolution.

The high court will decide on Friday on the application to overturn the dissolution.

Azmi said the commission will continue with the process to hold the election despite the application.

“Up to now, we have not received any order from the court to stop the election, so we will continue with our efforts,” Azmi told a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today.

A total of 1,124,598 voters from the latest electoral roll, which has been updated until July 29, will take part in the polls.

Voters outside of Sabah will be able to apply for postal voting beginning August 17, while the deadlines to apply are September 11 for voters within Malaysia and September 3 for those who are overseas.

The EC is targeting a turnout of 70% and to reach this target, it is rolling out several initiatives to get voters out to vote while ensuring they adhere to Health Ministry guidelines.

This includes issuing voter cards to every voter with details on their voting centre, voting channel and the recommended time for casting their ballots.

Specific voting channels will be created for those above 60 years and the opening hours for all centres will be extended for half an hour from 7.30am to 5pm.

“We have also added 322 voting channels compared to the previous election to ensure no congestion in the voting centres. It is also to ensure that social distancing can be followed.”

The EC will also start a mass media campaign to get Sabahans out to vote and put up banners in public places urging people to cast their ballots.

Azmi added the EC will build on their experiences in the Chini and Slim by-elections to generate the best turnout rate.

“If you look at the Chini by-election, the turnout of more than 70% even with the Covid-19 standard operating procedure was on par with the turnout during the general election when there was no Covid-19”.

“So we are confident that in Sabah, we will be able to get a good turnout even with the SOP.”

“We will do our best to get as many people to vote because our democracy is a valuable thing and will be easily lost if we don’t fulfil our responsibility.” – August 17, 2020.