Influx of voters through Johor unlikely, says immigration DG

 

About 200,000 travel on a daily basis through the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex at the Sultan Iskandar Building in Johor Bahru. (Bernama pic)

JOHOR BAHRU: The immigration department is not expecting a significant increase in the number of travellers entering the country at Johor’s two entry points on Nov 19, the polling day for the general election (GE15).

However, immigration department director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said preparations to manage any influx on voting day have been made.

“We are not expecting an influx like what we saw during the Deepavali celebration recently because that also involved foreigners and Singaporeans who took the opportunity to come into the country and celebrate the festival.

“For polling, it will only involve Malaysians who are working in Singapore.

“It will involve mostly the 200,000 who travel on a daily basis through the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex at the Sultan Iskandar Building and about 100,000 who use the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex entry point,” he said here.

Khairul said among the improvements made at the country’s entry point in Johor was the replacement of 20 auto gates that were more than 10 years old, for the use of Malaysian passport holders at CIQ. Work on this is expected to be fully completed by Nov 15.

“The upgrading work on 11 car entrance counters has also been completed and they are fully operational. Another eight counters are in the process of being upgraded.

“Another 19 counters will be completed under the next phase and will be ready by February 2023.” - FMT