GE15: Voter turnout 42 percent as at noon

Heavy police presence seen at the SK St John voting station in central Kuala Lumpur.
Reports and pix by Bhavani Krishna Iyer, Joan Santani, Eurieca Tissa

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 – Voter turnout stood at 42 percent as at noon today for the ongoing 15th General Election in Malaysia.

Many voters had turned up early in some places, joining in long queues to cast their ballots for the new government of Malaysia, while others chose to come in later and had less waiting to do.

While some waited for more than an hour to cast their ballot, it was a breeze-through process for others. At the SK Convent 2 Bukit Nenas, many had turned very early to vote, leaving the station almost empty for the “latecomers” to enjoy a quick voting duty.

At the SK St John voting station, a significantly heavy police presence was also seen.

A total of 944 candidates from the original 945 are now vying for the 222 parliamentary seats following the death of one candidate earlier this week.

This morning, Sinar Harian reported that Perikatan Nasional candidate for the Tioman state seat Md Yunus Ramli, had passed away early Saturday morning.

The 61-year-old candidate was reported to have died at about 3.30am due to heart complications. He was among the 434 candidates who had been nominated to contest for the 117 state seats in Perak, Pahang and Perlis.

Following their deaths, the EC has postponed the affected constituencies’ election dates.

–WE