Malaysia to hold polls in 6 states on Aug 12

KUALA LUMPUR: Polling for the upcoming six state elections in Malaysia will take place on Aug 12, the Election Commission (EC) said on Wednesday (Jul 5).

Nomination day will be on Jul 29 while early voting for security personnel such as the police and military is set to be held on Aug 8, said EC chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh at a press conference in Putrajaya.

The six states – Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan – did not hold their state elections concurrently with the 15th General Election (GE15) on Nov 19 last year.

There are 45, 32, 36, 40, 56, and 36 seats in the respective state assemblies.

The six states instead dissolved their legislative assemblies last month.

Kelantan was the first to dissolve its assembly on Jun 22, while Terengganu was the last to dissolve its assembly on Jun 28. 

Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah are under the rule of the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), which is a member of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition together with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Parti Gerakan Malaysia (Gerakan).   

Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Penang are under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition which leads the current unity government.

PH will be working together with former rivals Barisan Nasional (BN) in the state elections, which many observers say will be a crucial test for the unity government.  

After the last general election resulted in a hung parliament, BN became part of the unity government, together with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Parti Warisan.

PH chairman Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as prime minister on Nov 24 last year.

More than 9.7 million people will be eligible to cast their votes during the state elections.