KUCHING, March 3 — Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) components have been given the signal to warm up their election machinery with balloting in May, state minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing said today.

Masing who is president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) disclosed that the state ruling coalition chief Tan Sri Adenan Satem has indicated there is only a short buffer before the state polls.

“The chief minister has also signalled that the state legislative assembly would be dissolved at the end of April, with nomination of candidates and polling to be held in May.

“That is my understanding of the signals from the chief minister,” the state land development minister told reporters after an event here.

Masing’s disclosure pushes the election dates to a few weeks later from Adenan’s previous proposal to the Election Commission (EC) for nominations on April 18 and polling day on April 30.

However, Adenan said the EC has yet to accept his proposal.

Today, Masing also said the chief minister has yet to fix the date for the state BN supreme council meeting to discuss its election preparations.

He added that such a meeting is usually held only after the dissolution of the state assembly.

A total of 82 State Assembly seats are up for grabs in the coming elections against 71 in the 2011 elections.

A total of 1,141,294 registered voters are eligible to exercise their constitutional rights in the coming elections.