Bersih has announced two meeting points for those attending the Bersih 5 rally on Nov 19 - Dataran Maybank on Jalan Bangsar and Masjid Negara.

The protesters will be converging at Dataran Merdeka for a rally that is expected to last for eight hours.

Unlike last year's rally which went on for two days and one night, the coming Bersih 5 will start at 10am and end at 6pm.

A 1,000-strong security team as well as 80 medical staff, including doctors, nurses and paramedics, will be on standby.

Globally, 47 cities will be organising the rally simultaneously on the same day.

In a press briefing today, the electoral watchdog said it has submitted to the police the 10-day notice required under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.

"We are meeting up with the police at 11am on Thursday," Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdulllah said, when asked of the scenario if the police do not issue a permit for the rally.

However, steering comittee member Fadiah Nadwa Fikri pointed out that rallies no longer require police permits, under the PAA.

Maria explained that the gathering points have been reduced to two locations for better security.

She added that protesters will march as far as they could and if the authorities try to block them, "it would only show how desperate they are".

Maria said it would be hard to estimate the crowd turnout, but was confident that it would be a success.

"Most importantly is the police. If the red-shirts do things, it shouldn't be the sole responsibility of us. The police should be responsible. We have already done our part," she added.

Meanwhile, Hishamuddin Rais, an activist and Bersih resource person, said: "We are taking the Gandhi philosophy, non-violence."

Bersih has encountered a series of violent attacks nationwide since its convoy started, and red-shirts leader Jamal Md Yunos has already declared war against the movement.

The Bersih 5 rally is organised as a response to the political crisis brought on by the 1MDB scandal, and its five demands are clean elections, clean government, strengthening of parliamentary democracy, right to dissent, empowering Sabah and Sarawak.