JOHOR BARU, Feb 9 — The Election Commission (EC) has set March 12 as polling day for the 15th Johor state election.

Nomination day is February 26 and early polling will be held on March 8.

This was announced by EC chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh at a press conference after chairing a special meeting on the Johor state election at the Persada Johor International Convention Centre here.

He said that a total of 2.597 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the election.

“The EC will station 56 election officers to monitor the campaign activities, and they would be aided by 186 assistant managers,” said Abdul Ghani.

Also present was EC secretary Datuk Ikmalrudin Ishak and Johor EC director Nor Nekman Jaiman.

A 14-day campaign would start on February 26 after the nomination process till 11.59pm on March 11.

Abdul Ghani said out of the total of 2.597 million eligible voters, the figure involved 2.57 million ordinary voters, 10,955 military personnel and spouses as well as 11,576 policemen and spouses as well as 376 absentee voters overseas.

“The Election Voter Register that will be used for the 15th Johor state election will be the 2021 master voter register which has been updated until January 21.

“Voters can check the register to find out information on polling centres, voting channels and their numbers through the EC portal at pengundi.spr.gov.my or by calling 03-88927018 or through the MySPR Semak application. Checks can be made from February 21 onwards,” said Abdul Ghani.

The number of voters in Johor recorded an increase of 28 per cent compared to only 1.8 million voters in the previous 14th general election (GE14) with the addition of 749,731 voters aged 18 years and above, following the automatic registration for Undi18.

The Johor government has been previously reported to have a razor thin majority with only having 28 seats compared to 27 seats in the Opposition, following the death of Kempas assemblyman Datuk Osman Sapian, who is also the former Mentri Besar, on December 21.

A premature state election was triggered in Johor more than two weeks ago after caretaker Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad from Umno sought the dissolution of the state assembly despite holding a one-seat majority.

The EC officially received a notice from the Johor state assembly Speaker Suhaizan Kaiat regarding the dissolution of the state assembly for the 14th term on January 23.

A day before, Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar was reported to have consented to the dissolution of the state assembly, paving the way for a state election.

This will be the third time that the country has seen state elections in the past five months after the Melaka and Sarawak elections in November and December last year.