EARLY voting for the 16th Sabah state election involving 16,877 security forces personnel and their spouses will be held at 55 polling centres tomorrow, the Election Commission (EC) said today.

EC secretary Ikmalrudin Ishak said of this number, 7,487 are armed forces personnel and their spouses, while 9,390 are from the police. 

“For this purpose, the early voting centres will be open from 8am to 5pm,” he said in a statement.

He said guidelines to curb the spread of Covid-19 will be enforced during early voting, including physical-distancing, wearing of masks, usage of hand sanitiser, taking of body temperature, attendance taking and etc.

Agents of candidates and election observers appointed by the EC will monitor the early voting process, which will be streamed live on the EC Facebook page, he added.

“All ballot boxes for early voting will be kept at police lockups. The ballots will only be counted on September 26 beginning 4pm. 

“The counting of votes will be conducted at counting centres designated by EC and the vote-counting process will be witnessed by agents of the candidates,” he said.

The state election is being held following the dissolution of the Sabah state assembly on July 30.

Some 1.12 million voters will go to the polls on Saturday. – Bernama, September 21, 2020.