KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — The vote counting process for the preliminary vote in conjunction with the 2024 Indonesian General Election at the World Trade Centre (WTC) polling place (TPS) commenced at the same location at 3:30 pm on Wednesday.
It is reported that the 223 ballot boxes used for the early voting process at the WTC last Sunday were not removed from the TPS and the premises were kept under tight security until the vote counting.
The vote counting was conducted with the presence of representatives from the candidates and competing parties, and it is understood that the vote counting process at the WTC will span two days.
Foreign Election Committee spokesperson Puji Sumarsono when met by accredited media allowed to observe the counting process at the WTC, said more than 20,000 voters were present at the WTC on Sunday, which represents about 10 per cent of the 222,945 registered voters in Malaysia who are eligible to vote in polling station.
“Also counted at this WTC are ballots from the Circulating Voice Box (KSK) including from Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, Perak, Kelantan, and Terengganu,” he said.
Voting through KSK or mobile ballot boxes was carried out from 1 February to February 10 in Indonesian settlement communities as well as factories and farms.
The WTC is the largest polling centre outside Indonesia set up in conjunction with the 2024 Election. Early voting centres that also opened in Malaysia on Sunday are located in Johor, Penang, Sabah (Kota Kinabalu and Tawau) and Sarawak (Kuching).
Today about 204.8 million Indonesian voters are eligible to vote at more than 800,000 TPS throughout the republic, to determine the top leadership of the world’s third-largest democracy which involves three teams running for president and vice president positions.
They are presidential candidate Anies Baswedan and vice-presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin; the pair of Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto and his running mate, President Joko Widodo’s eldest son – Gibran Rakabuming Raka; and the pair of Ganjar Pranowo, former governor of Central Java, along with Mahfud MD, former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs.
The overseas vote-counting process in Sabah is taking place at the Sabah International Convention Center (SICC) in Kota Kinabalu and at Dewan Sri Tawau in Tawau.
In Kota Kinabalu, Kota Kinabalu Foreign Election Committee (PPLN) 2024 chairman Marwan Wardhana said more than 2,000 staff participated in the vote counting process which started at 2.30 pm involving a total of 918 ballot boxes.
He said the vote counting process was divided into two sessions and his party aimed to finish the process at 5 am tomorrow.
“All of that must be counted to completion within 24 hours from the closing of polling stations in Indonesia,” he said when met by reporters during the vote-counting process at the SICC today.
According to him, approximately 79.83 per cent of the 98,669 Indonesian citizens in the Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia in Kota Kinabalu went out to vote in conjunction with the 2024 Election.
In Tawau, the counting of votes at Dewan Sri Tawau started at 2 pm and involved the counting of 376 ballot boxes.
The head of the PPLN Committee in Tawau Iskandar Suskmadi said a total of 669 officers were involved in the counting of votes which is expected to be completed at noon tomorrow.
According to him, 80 per cent of the 59,442 voters in the Tawau region went out to vote last Sunday.
— Bernama
