KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — The Election Commission (EC) has set December 18 as Polling Day for the upcoming 12th Sarawak state election. 

Nomination Day will be set on December 6, while early polling will be held on December 14. 

This announcement comes after EC chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh chaired a special meeting regarding the Sarawak state election in Kuching today. 

"The EC has elected 82 returning officers and 249 assistant returning officers to help manage the Sarawak state election process.

"For the purpose of monitoring campaign activities throughout the election campaign period, EC has set up 155 election task forces comprising representatives of the police, local authorities and representatives of candidates,” he said.

He said the Supplementary Electoral Roll of Second Quarter 2021, which was updated as at November 2, 2021, will be used for the state election.

The electoral roll contains 1,252,014 voters. 

The Sarawak State Assembly has 82 seats, and was scheduled to automatically be dissolved on June 7, 2021. 

However, Malaysia’s declaration of a state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic suspended the automatic dissolution of the Assembly. 

On November 3, Istana Negara announced that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had consented to lift the Proclamation of Emergency for Sarawak, with Chief Minister Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg announcing the dissolution of the Sarawak state assembly in Kuching on November 5.

* A previous version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.