Election Day

8 March 2008 marked the date of the 12th Malaysian General Election. Soon after the Prime Minister dissolved Parliament on 13 February 2008, we could see flags and banners of various political parties appearing all over the city.

Campaigning fever then gripped the nation after the nomination of candidates on 24 February 2008. The political candidates in our area are:

PUCHONG (Parliament) -
Lau Yeng Peng (BN-Gerakan, incumbent) vs Gobind Singh Deo (DAP)

SERI SERDANG (State) -
Datuk Mohd. Satim Diman (BN-UMNO, incumbent) vs Ahmad Idzam Ahmad (PAS)

Come election day, we arrived at our polling center at about 9.15am. There were many cars parked by the roadside and 3 political party booths set up nearby - 1 for BN, 1 for DAP and 1 for PAS.
Strangely enough, the DAP booth was closed (on election day!!!) while the other 2 booths were busy trying to woo the voters.

We had previously printed out our voting info (from the Election Commission’s website) but a BN party worker requested us to re-check our info at their booth as there could be mistakes. Our printed info turned out to be accurate while the voter info distributed by BN earlier contained a mistake!

After that, we proceeded into the school compound where we passed by yet another booth – this time, the Election Commission’s booth. We didn’t stop as we already knew our polling streams. An election worker gave us directions, and we went towards our voting rooms.

I was in Stream 7 while Sze was in Stream 4. I didn’t know where I was, and when I asked a policeman, he said that I was standing right in front of the Stream 7 room… oops! Everywhere else, there were many people lining up to vote… except me - I just walked into the room, got my polling slips and casted my vote. I think I was the fastest voter! Sze had a longer queue but he was soon done with his voting too.

While waiting for my parents-in-law, we saw a “gentleman” arguing loudly with an election officer and a policeman, who threatened to arrest him and subsequently pulled him out of the building. Apparently, the man had wanted to change stream to one with a shorter queue. The police later released him and peace was restored. We left the polling station after an hour.

And oh, the winning candidates in our area are:
PUCHONG (Parliament) - Gobind Singh Deo (DAP), won by a majority of 12,593.
SERI SERDANG (State) - Datuk Mohd. Satim Diman (BN-UMNO), won by a majority of 45 only!