Kota Kinabalu: A total of 11,835 police personnel in Sabah and Labuan cast their early ballots, Tuesday.The early balloting is so that the police force would be on duty to protect polling stations on Saturday (Nov 19) when millions more Malaysians come out to vote.
From the figure, a total of 9,116 registered early voters are made up of police officials and their spouses, while the remaining 2,719 were police officials registered as postal voters.
Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Idris Abdullah said 41 voting centres with 47 voting channels were opened from 8am to 5pm. Kota Kinabalu Police Chief ACP Mohd Zaidi Abdullah turned up to vote at 9am.
Two campaign-related police reports were received. One case had insults being thrown at a candidate during a campaign rally, and another case involved political party flags being torn down by a group of children younger than 12.
However, everything regarding the campaign, including speeches, walkabouts and door-to-door activities was under
control.
Police personnel can be seen lining up to cast the early ballot at the Sabah police headquarters in Kepayan.
A total of 125 candidates are contesting for the 26 parliamentary seats in Sabah and Labuan. Out of this, 119 candidates are contesting for the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah, and six candidates are for the Labuan parliamentary seat.
In Tawau, some 627 police personnel took part in the early voting.
In PUTATAN, some 2,900 army personnel including their families at the Lok Kawi camp cast their votes as early as 7am.
Fifth Infantry Division (5 Div) Commander Major General Datuk Abdul Rahman A. Wahab disclosed that 6,000 personnel across Sabah are eligible while 1,299 have registered as postal voters.
“Excluding the postal voters we expect a 72 per cent turnout from the 5th Division family today. They will follow rotations according to respective companies and units on order to avoid congestion at the polling centres. There are 11,181 active Malaysian Armed Forces in Sabah including Labuan eligible to vote,” he said.
“The Election Commission set up 12 early voting centres in Sabah for the army in Tawau, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu,” he added.
In LABUAN, early voting began for 1, 444 Royal Malaysian Police, armed forces and their spouses, and of the number 375 were policemen and 1,069 from the military.
The process was conducted at police contingent district police headquarters in the town centre (for policemen) and SK Membedai in air force base camps (for military). Ahmad Jawila said 96 permits for political campaign “ceramah” were approved for all six candidates vying for the Labuan Parliamentary seat.
In SANDAKAN, media representatives from the State Broadcasting Department, RTM Sandakan, cast their ballots, after registering as postal voters.
Their marked ballot papers were placed in the ballot box at the Sabah Forestry Department which acted as the P185 Batu Sapi Election Commission manager.
Erna Wana Habinullah, said that while they normally are unable to travel back to their hometowns to cast their ballots owing to work commitments and duties, this gives media representatives the option to do so.
