PUTRAJAYA: More than 14.9 million voters will go to the polls on May 9 for the 14th General Election.
Nomination date is set for April 28, while early voting will take place on May 5.
This marks the fourth time in the country’s history that polling day is held on weekday.
Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah announced the dates in a packed media briefing, which was also broadcast live, after chairing a special EC meeting for about two hours.
This time around, political parties have 11 days to campaign, compared to the 2013 General Election, where the campaign period lasted for 15 days.
Hashim said the writ of election would be issued on April 11 to the returning officers (RO) in charge of each constituency to inform them of their duties on nomination day and polling day.
Last Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the dissolution of Parliament, which came into effect on April 7.
Hashim said the commission has appointed 222 ROs to conduct the election process.
"A 445-man special campaign enforcement team will be formed by the EC. For this general election, a total of 259,391 on-duty officers comprising members of the public have been appointed to conduct GE14."
He said 8,989 premises would be used as polling centres with 28,995 voting streams.
Hashim estimated the cost of conducting GE14 to be about RM500 million.
The number of registered voters, he said, stood at 14,940,624. Out of the total, 300,255 comprised early voters and another 3,653 are absent voters. The rest are regular voters.
The electoral roll will be sold on April 16, said Hashim, adding voters could check their status at the EC portal at www.spr.gov.my, via MYSPR SEMAK app, call 03-88927018, or by sending an SMS to 15888 from April 16.
He said the EC has also invited international observers from 14 countries comprising those from Asean, the Commonwealth, Asia and Europe.
Hashim said the observers also involved those from the Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre based in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
At the same time, he said the EC has appointed 14 non-governmental organisations and university representatives as local observers. These local and foreign observers are allowed to monitor the goings-on at the nomination centres, early voting centres, polling centres and vote-counting centres.
"In this respect, the EC will not acknowledge any organisation or individual other than those officially appointed by EC to monitor and observe the GE14 process.
"I wish to remind that the postal voting closing date for the Form 1A category will fall on April 28. The closing date for the Form 1C category will be on April 23," said Hashim.
REPORTS BY AZURA ABAS, HIDIR REDUAN, ROHANIZA IDRIS, IRWAN SHAFRIZAN ISMAIL AND MOHD HUSNI MOHD NOOR