KUCHING: Some 5,000 police personnel will be on duty during the early voting process for the Sarawak state election on Tuesday (Dec 14).

       State deputy police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mancha Ata said this was to ensure safety and order at polling centres and for the process to go smoothly.

       He said a total of 10,458 police personnel, members of the General Operations Force as well as their spouses will be involved in early voting.

       “There will be 85 polling centres with 111 polling streams that will be opened tomorrow from 7.30am to 5pm,” he said in a statement on Monday (Dec 13).

       Aside from the multi-purpose hall at state police headquarters and district police stations, several other venues have been designated for early polling purposes.

       DCP Mancha also said police had issued six compound notices over breach of standard operating procedures set for the state election since nomination day on Dec 6.

       The compound notices were worth a total of RM31,000.

       “We have also opened 39 investigation papers since Nov 30,” he said without elaborating.

       Sarawak police have also received 1,837 applications for police permits from contesting parties to date, he added.

       “For this election, there were about 1,200 postal voters under the police force but only 708 applications were approved.

       “The remaining 492 postal vote applications were rejected and these voters will be present for early voting tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.