Malaysia’s Election Commission announced this morning (Tuesday) that the 14th general election would be held on May 9 and nomination day for candidates would be on April 28 after which parties can start campaigning, according to The Straits Times Online on Tuesday(Apr 10).
May 9 falls on Wednesday and this marks the first time in almost 20 years and the national poll is held on a weekday.
Opposition member Wan Saiful Wan Jan labelled the weekday polling date as “another attempt by Najib(Prime Miniser Najib Razak) and Umno to steal the election.”
There are currently about 400,000 Malaysians working in Singapore with some residing in the island state and others commute daily from Johor.
The Election Commission announced in January that Malaysians living in neighbouring countries such as Singaporean, southern Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei must return to Malaysia to vote.
EC chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah said that the EC would use the electoral roll updated to the 4th quarter of 2017 which has 14.9 million registered voters. In the last election in 2013, Malaysia had 13.3 registered voters and voter’s turnout was 85 percent.
Registered early voters numbering about 300,000 who include army personnel, police and their spouses will vote on Saturday May 5.
Billed as “the mother of all elections”, the May 9 election will see the political comeback from retirement of former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad to challenge his former protege, prime minister Najib.
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