11% voter turnout in Sarawak as of 9am

The Election Commission has reported an 11% voter turnout in the Sarawak election as of 9am today since polling centres opened at 7.30am.

A total of 1,866 polling centres involving 3,555 channels have been set up and, depending on the number of voters, several centres are expected to close in stages as early as noon, before polling ends at 5pm.

The 12th state election, involving 1,213,769 ordinary voters out of 1,252,014 registered voters, will be managed by some 46,565 election officials in all 82 state seats.

On Dec 14, a total of 18,141 out of 20,360 registered early voters cast their votes while 17,885 voted by post.

Gabungan Parti Sarawak is fielding 82 candidates for the polls, followed by Parti Bumi Kenyalang with 73, Parti Sarawak Bersatu 70, PKR 28, DAP 26, Parti Aspirasi Rakyat Sarawak 15, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru 11, Amanah eight, Parti Sedar Rakyat Sarawak five and PAS one.

Thirty independent candidates are in the fray as well.