By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, Oct 20 — The Election Commission (EC) has announced that the 15th general election (GE15) will take place on November 19 (Saturday), today.
Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh in a live broadcast today said that the nomination of candidates will take place on November 5 (Saturday).
The campaigning period will be held for 14 days from November 5 until November 18 at 11.59pm.
The commission also announced that the dates for the N66 Bugaya by-election in Semporna, Sabah, and the state elections in Pahang, Perlis and Perak will be held simultaneously with GE15.
A total of 5,718,760 voters have been registered as of December of last year, when Undi18 and automated voter registration went into force, bringing the total number of eligible voters to 21.1 million.
The 2018 general election saw 11.35 million Malaysians go to the polls or a 76 per cent voter turnout, which was lower than the total turnout in 2013 of 84.8 per cent.
The upcoming polls will see contests for 222 parliamentary and 42 state seats in Pahang, 15 state seats in Perlis and 59 state seats in Perak.
The announcement was made at the EC headquarters in Putrajaya after a special meeting was held earlier today by the EC to decide on the GE15 key dates.
The meeting was held following the dissolution of the Parliament on October 10, which was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob after getting the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
The upcoming general election is different from the previous elections as several state legislative assemblies, which just held state elections, were not dissolved, namely Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.
Sabah, Melaka, Sarawak and Johor held their state elections on September 2020, November 2021, December 2021 and March 2022 respectively.
While three states under PAS – Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah – and three states under Pakatan Harapan – Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan – did not call for the dissolution of their respective state assemblies as their state polls are only due next year.
Only the states of Perak, Pahang, and Perlis dissolved their state assemblies to hold state elections simultaneously with GE15.