MORE than one million voters have cast their ballots in the Johor polls, Election Commission (EC) said.

The EC said as of 3pm, 46% of 2.5 million voters have voted.

In the last GE, a total of 1,503,995 or 82.73% of registered voters came out to vote.

In this state election, there is an increase of about 28% of voters or almost 780,000 from 2,597,742 voters.

Of that number, 173,177 are voters aged 18 to 20, and 50% of the total voters are under 40 years of age.

The Johor polls is the first election in Malaysia involving voters aged 18 years old following amendments to reduce the voting age limit and automatic voter registration in March 2019.

A total of 1,021 polling stations have been opened and polling will end at 6pm. Some polling stations are scheduled to close early due to fewer voters in those areas.

Today’s election process involved 2,539,606 voters from a total of 2,597,742 registered eligible voters in the Johor elections. 

The number of those who went out to vote increased about 5-6% in the span of an hour, with 22% at 11 a.m., increasing to 29% (12 noon) and 35% (1 p.m.).

Early voters that cast their ballots on Tuesday numbered 18,625, comprising police personnel, soldiers and their spouses.

In Johor, 239 candidates from 11 political parties are contesting the elections. There are six Independent candidates.

There are 56 state assembly seats in Johor.

Thirty-five seats are seeing four-cornered fights, seven seats are seeing three-cornered fights, eight are seeing five-cornered fights and four are seeing six-cornered fights. – March 12, 2022.