Malaysians cast their votes today

Malaysians go out to the polling booths today to discharge their responsibility as citizens in the 12th general election which is expected to return the Barisan Nasional (BN) to lead the government for the next five years.

A total of 10.9 million registered voters are eligible to choose the elected representatives for 214 of the 222 parliamentary seats and 501 of the 505 State Legislative Assembly seats nationwide except for Sarawak which is only involved in the election for parliamentary seats.

The Election Commission (EC) opened 7,950 polling centres throughout the country, with 21,822 polling streams, which mostly involve schools, multipurpose halls and longhouses from 8am until 5pm.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will be voting at Sekolah Kebangsaan Permatang Batas, Kepala Batas while Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will do so at Sekolah Menengah Sains Sultan Ahmad Shah, Pekan.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman expects about 75 per cent of the registered voters to cast their votes.
On nomination day on Feb 24, BN won eight parliamentary seats and three State Assembly seats uncontested while the opposition won one State Assembly seat through PAS in Kijang, Kelantan.