KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh said that the commission is fully ready to hold the 15th general election (GE15) anytime Parliament is dissolved.

Malay daily Utusan Malaysia today quoted Abdul Ghani as saying that the expected costs for managing the election will be approximately RM1 billion, with 21.1 million eligible voters.

"The EC has taken the initiative including all aspects of budget management, logistics, ICT (information and communications technology) hardware and system requirements, human resources management as well as training for officers," he said yesterday.

He reportedly added that preparations included identifying polling stations, candidate nomination centres, official vote tallying centres and election officers.

He said that election officials across the country have undergone various training and intensive courses to learn about their respective roles, duties and responsibilities.

Abdul Ghani was also quoted as saying that after Undi18 and automatic voter registration came into effect on December 15 last year, a total of 5,718,760 voters have been registered.