KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 19): Total voter turnout for the 15th general election (GE15) hit 70% at 4pm, with just over an hour to go before polling ends.

According to the Election Commission (EC), some 70% or about 14.82 million of the 21.17 million electors in GE15 had cast their ballots at 4pm on Saturday (Nov 19) — exceeding the total number who voted in GE14 by 3.42 million.

As at 2pm, the number of GE15 voters already matched GE14’s total of 12.3 million.

Voters voted between 8am and 6pm in the peninsula, and from 7.30am to 5.30pm in Sabah and Sarawak.

In GE14, 69% or 10.31 million had voted by 3pm.

Voter turnout was 82.32% or 12.3 million in GE14.

Voter turnout for GE15 is expected to be lower in percentage terms but higher in absolute terms due to an enlarged voter base from the automatic voter registration, as well as the lowering of voting age from 21 to 18.

The 21.17 million in the GE15 electoral roll is about 42% more than the 14.94 million registered voters in GE14 that was held on May 9, 2018, a Wednesday.

According to Bernama, the 21,173,638 electors in the GE15 electoral roll comprises 20,853,681 ordinary voters, 146,737 army personnel and their spouses, 118,794 police personnel, including those from the General Operations Forces and their spouses, and 2,741 absentee electors.

Get our comprehensive GE15 coverage here.