PARLIAMENT The huge spike in the voter turnout recorded in the May 7 Sarawak election was due to 40 percent of the polling stations failing to convey the relevant information to the Election Commission (EC), according to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said.

She was responding to queries on how the turnout was recorded at 70.02 percent when it was at 52 percent an hour earlier or as of 4pm.

"The 52 percent recorded at 4pm was merely the preliminary information of the voter turnout," she said in a written parliamentary reply.

Voter turnout, she added, was calculated at each polling station and the respective polling station chiefs would then send this information to the EC operation centre.

"But by 4pm, only 60 percent of the polling centre chiefs sent the information to the EC operations centre, while 40 percent were unable to do so due to various reasons," she said.

Azalina added that the 70 percent turnout was the final figure based on information contained in the statement of the polls after the official addition of votes.

She said the document, also known as form 16, was submitted by all officers in charge their respective constituencies, which was subsequently processed by a computer system.

A total of 80 of the 82 constituencies were contested. BN won the other two uncontested.

Electoral watchdog Bersih had previously questioned the sudden spike in the turnout, raising concerns about electoral irregularities.