KUCHING, May 3 — Early voting for the 11th Sarawak Election began at 8am today with a total of 24,604 voters eligible to cast their ballots.

It is being held simultaneously at 67 polling centres that will close at 5pm.

The voters include military, general operations force and police personnel along with their spouses.

According to the Election Commission, Stakan has the most early voters with 7, 055 people, followed by Kota Sentosa (3,163), Nangka (3,043), Batu Kawah (1,241) and Sri Aman with 1,075 voters.

The total does not include 418 early voters in two seats who will not vote as these were won on nomination day, April 25.

Datuk Abdul Rahman Ismail won the Bukit Kota seat while Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan secured the Bukit Sari seat uncontested.

There are 80 seats remaining in the state election that will be held on May 7.