PUTRAJAYA: The Election Commission (EC) has fixed Aug 12 as polling day and July 29 as the nomination day for the elections in six states.
EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh, who made the announcement today, said Aug 8 was set as the early voting day.
It will be a two-week campaign period for the 245 seats up for elections in the six states, which costs a total of RM420 million, he said.
"A total of 245 state seats will be contested, including 36 in Kedah; Kelantan (45); Terengganu (32); Penang (40); Selangor (56) and Negri Sembilan (36).
"Meanwhile, there are a total of 9,773,571 elligible voters based on the current updated data on June 21.
"Of the total, 9,674,456 are ordinary registered voters; 49,660 are soldiers and their spouses; 47,728 are police and their spouses and 1,727 are Malaysians who registered as Absent Overseas Voters," he told a press conference in the EC headquarters here today.
Also present were deputy EC chairman Dr Azmi Sharom and secretary Datuk Ikmalrudin Ishak.
He added that the comission has also appointed 245 returning officers and 740 assistant returning officers to handle the election process.
At the same time, 153,750 personnel have been appointed to handle the election process and 252 election campaign enforcement teams have been set up to monitor all activities during the campaign period, he said.
Meanwhile, 173 nomination centres and 186 official vote tallying centres will be established for the six states elections.
"There will also be 3,190 regular polling centres with 17,048 polling streams and 260 early voting centres with 377 polling streams."
Last Monday, EC announced it will hold a special meeting to discuss the possible dates for the state polls following the receipt of notices of the official dissolution from the respective State Assembly speakers in six states.
Kelantan was the first to dissolve its state assembly on June 22, followed by Selangor on June 23, Kedah, Penang and Terengganu on June 28 and Negri Sembilan on July 1.