SARAWAK will go to the polls for its 12th state elections on December 18, the Election Commission (EC) announced today.

The EC, in its special meeting in Kuching today, also fixed nomination of candidates on December 6, giving parties a period of 12 days to campaign.

The meeting also set December 14 for the early polling.

Sarawak has 82 seats, and ballots will be cast at 1,951 polling centres around the country’s largest state with difficult-to-reach interior areas.

Despite the election being held during the monsoon season, the EC is targeting a 70% turnout.

The EC said there will be 1,252,014 voters eligible to vote in the election, based on the electoral roll that is updated as of November 2.

Of these, 1,228,868 are ordinary voters, 12,585 military personnel, and 10,458 police personnel and their spouses.

To run the election, estimated to cost RM150 million, the EC said it had appointed 82 returning officers and 249 assistant ROs.

It had also mobilised a further 46,565 workers to administer the election.

There will also be 155 monitoring and enforcement teams, comprising personnel from the police, local government authorities and representatives of candidates, to monitor the campaign.

The state election should have been held in earlier after the legislative assembly’s term expired on June 6, but all elections were suspended under a national emergency to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

When the national emergency ended in August, Sarawak’s was extended under a localised emergency, until it was lifted on November 3. Polls had to be held within 60 days from that date. – November 24, 2021.