KOTA KINABALU, Sept 25 ― The Election Commission (EC) has given an assurance that there will be no phantom voters in the 16th Sabah state election tomorrow.

EC chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh said this is because all voters were registered based on data obtained from the National Registration Department (JPN).

"It means they are all Malaysians and the issue of phantom voters and the like does not arise,” he added.

He told reporters this after inspecting preparations at the vote-tallying centre for the N26 Moyog seat at the Penampang Cultural Centre near here.

Abdul Ghani said final preparations for polling tomorrow were proceeding smoothly and reminded voters to bring along their identity card and to stick to the voting times suggested by the EC.

Abdul Ghani said the EC would be using 20 helicopters to carry ballot boxes to the interior areas.

The areas involved include Sekolah Kebangsaan Saliliran in the Nabawan constituency and Pulau Dinawan for the Sulabayan seat.

"If the weather does not allow helicopters to operate, we will use four-wheel drives or boats to ensure all election paraphernalia reach their destinations,” he added.

Asked when full results could be expected, Abdul Ghani said it depends on the returning officers (ROs) in the respective constituencies.

"If possible, full results should be out by 10 pm but it depends on the ROs...if we get the results early we will release them early,” he added.

A total of 1,088,711 of the 1,103,646 normal voters are eligible to cast their ballots tomorrow, as 14,935 people had voted by post.

On Tuesday, some 76 per cent of the 16,877 early voters had also cast their ballots. ― Bernama