WITH a total of 94.72% or 212,961 individuals having fulfilled their responsibilities as early voters in the 15th General Election (GE15) and the Bugaya by-election on Tuesday (Nov 15), the onus is now on other eligible Malaysians to full their quinquennial (once every five years) democratic obligation.
As gates to polling stations across Malaysia open from 8am-6pm in Peninsular Malaysia and from 7.30am to 5.30pm in Sabah and Sarawak today (Nov 19), there are altogether a total of 21,173,638 (circa 21.17 million) individuals who are eligible to vote in the national poll, according to figures by the Election Commission (EC).
This includes some 5.8 million new voters who have been added to the country’s electoral roll after the implementation of automatic voter registration and crucially, the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 years old (Undi18).
Voting will be held at 8,958 polling stations involving 38,348 streams, with a total of 363,515 people assigned for duty in the polling process.
No eligible voters will be exempted from carrying out their citizenry responsibility. Voters who are confirmed positive for COVID-19 need to report their status in the MySejahtera app to get the information and guidelines for them to go to the polls.
Once arrived at the entrance of their polling stations, COVID-positive individuals must inform the Health Ministry’s (MOH) officials of their health status following which they will be accompanied by the MOH official straight to the voting room (exempted from queuing with other voters).
Amid all the excitement and fanfare about GE15 ever since the dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10, do consider the following ‘personal hygiene’ measures:
- Wear double mask.
- Keep personal space of one meter.
- Bring and use hand sanitiser especially after using their pen.
- Bring plastic bag and rubber band to keep your phone when placing into box. After that dispose the plastic bag and sanitise your phone.
- Bring tissue paper to wipe finger after dipping into ink.
- Do not hang around polling station; proceed home for shower. – Nov 19, 2022
