By NNN-Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : Voting in Malaysia’s 12th general election set for this Saturday has started with the casting of postal ballots by the country’s more than 80,000 police personnel as campaigning heated up with just a few days left before Polling Day.
The nation’s top cop, Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan led the voting at Federal Police Headquarters here Monday as the 83,794 eligible officers and men of the Royal Malaysia Police began to cast their votes.
The police will be followed by members of the military in casting postal ballots on Tuesday. Out of Malaysuia’s 10,922,139 registered voters, there are 221,085 who are registered to cast postal votes, including staff of Malaysian diplomatic offices overseas.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is leading his National Front coalition into electoral battle in the country’s 12th general election.
There are 222 seats for Parliament and 505 seats in 12 of the 13 state legislative assemblies. The east Malaysian state of Sarawak is the only one not holding state assembly elections simultaneously as its assembly was elected only in 2006.
On Nomination Day on Feb 24, the National Front coalition got off to a good start when it won seven parliamentary and two state seats uncontested and subsequently added another parliamentary and another state seat when the opposition candidates withdrew.