Malaysia decides, but process often 'messy'

POLLING DAY - LIVE REPORTS

12.15 pm: Seremban - A check of polling centres reveals that many voters have turned out already, with the weather being kind up to now. However, roads are congested around the town.

12.01pm: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah - The scorching sun is apparently keeping voters away from the polling centres around the capital city.

Compared to this morning, queues are hardly seen, except for voting streams 3 and 4 assigned to younger voters.

"We're hoping they'll come out when it gets cooler," one SAPP polling agent says at the Maktab Sabah polling centre in Luyang.

SAPPP estimates that about a quarter of the total voters have turned up at the polling centre.

The heat is also taking its toll on election agents who are taking cover in the shade.

"It's so hot I've had to remove my head scarf!" an Umno polling agent lamented at SMK Sanzac, in the state seat of Tanjong Aru - where PAS candidate Hamid Ismail is attempting to break the party's "extremist" image.

However, in Api-api, closest to the city centre, a 100m-long line of voters has formed outside the SJK (C) Chung Hwa Kampung Air. The line continues into the school compound.

A man who is standing midway in the queue says he has been lining up for 30 minutes.

Api-api is contested by PKR's Christina Liew, BN's Yee Moh Chai and three others. 

Liew, who lost to Yee by less than 200 votes in 2008, has continuously urged supporters to come out to vote as an additional 4,000 names have been added to the roll.

Noon: Air Putih, Penang - Despite all the allegations of vote-buying and that voters have abandoned him, caretaker Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been received warmly when making the rounds of Air Putih.

Lim, the DAP secretary-general, is defending the state seat.

Many rushed to greet him and shake his hands, wishing him "Good luck and all the best".

Sporting a white shirt, which is soaked with sweat, Lim assisted the disabled to enter the voting centre at the SRJK (C) Kong Min in Air Itam.

11.50am: Kulai, Johor - Chua Siew Pin, 42, a voter in the Kulai parliamentary seat and Bukit Batu state seat, has found that someone has voted in her name.

She found this out when she arrived at the polling station at SJK(C) Batu about 10am.

"I'm waiting for the agents of political parties to help me. I will fight for my rights," she says.

She claims that the EC officer had filled a Borang 10 in order to disqualify her, but she insisted on a Borang 11 being used - a declaration form to allow voting in the event of a dispute.

11.50am: Penang, Pantai Jerejak - PKR's Bayan Baru candidate Sim Tze Tzin says he had received several complaints from voters in Pantai Jerejak that their ballot paper was stained with indelible ink.

"When I checked with the Returning Officer, I was told that if it stains the back of the paper, it is still okay. But if it stains the front where voting is done, then it would be considered as spoilt vote," he says.

Sim, the Pantai Jerejak incumbent, says other issues have cropped up - for example, ballot papers being placed in the wrong box

"The problem has been resolved after talking to the officers concerned," he adds.

11.37am: Segamat, Johor - PKR candidate Chua Jui Meng's election agent says two voters have objected to discrepancies in Chua's name on the ballot paper.

"The main polling station showed us the ballot paper, which states 'Datuk Chua Jui Meng'," says Victor Chu.

"But we are also getting reports that other ballot papers have printed his name as Dr Chua Jui Meng."

A complaint has been lodged with the Returning Officer, as a precaution.

11.23am: Alor Setar, Kedah - Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali are mobbed by hundreds as they arrive to cast their votes at Sekolah Kebagsaan Titi Gajah, according to the New Straits Times.

They are among 29,056 voters in the Anak Bukit state seat, under the Kuala Kedah parliamentary constituency. 

11am: Bagan constituency, Penang - At the SRK Sungai Nyior, Bagan Dalam, DAP election agent Sim Phoi Yong complains that a voter lost his right to vote because an EC officer marked his finger with indelible ink and then told him that he is not registered as a voter at that station.

"We have reported the case to the Returning Officer, who has taken note of this," says Sim.

11am: Seri Delima constituency, Penang - Two pondok panas - one set up by BN and the other by DAP - are located a few metres outside the voting centre at SMK Hamid Khan.

An Election Commission supervisor, who declined to be named, says that, as long as the pondoks are not in the school compound, it "should be okay".

When met after voting, retiree Kua Chan Peng (left), 57, complained that the voting procedure was messy.

"I had printed out my details from the EC website and, by right, do not need to get the voting slip. I went straight to my stream but they told me, I must have the slip. After I insisted, they let me vote. Some senior citizens may be turned off by this messy procedure."

Retired nurse Jenny Chong,78, says she had to insist on a new ballot paper as the one given to her was "tarnished".

"There was a line drawn on the parliamentary ballot. I debated with the EC representative and finally got a replacement, but I had to wait.

"They told me not to dirty the paper, but I replied that it was already dirtied and that I know how to vote, as I have been doing it since the 1960s."

10.50am: Kedah - Voting is proceeding smoothly in five polling centres in the Ayer Hitam and Kota Siputeh state seats, although the number of voters has increased sizeably since this morning.

PAS' Ayer Hitam candidate Abdul Ghani Ahmad voted at the Ayer Hitam primary school about 8.30am.

At two polling stations, banners have been spotted with a message that voters will reject BN's Ayer Hitam candidate Mukhriz Mahathir.

Another warns Mukhriz and his father Dr Matahir Mohamad not to cause a split in BN Kedah.

10.30am: Mengkibol, Johor - DAP candidate Tan Hon Ping accuses the EC of irregular practices at several polling stations in the state.

For instance, he says a polling clerk at SJK (C)Yun Ming has not stamped the ballot papers  issued to voters, according to observers.

At the polling station in SK Parit Keroma Darat, Muar, the polling clerk is said to have told voters that it is "all right not to stamp" the ballot papers.

At SMK Seri Mersing, a 29-year-old voter has lodged a police report, claiming that his ballot paper was not stamped.

In Mersing, a polling centre has not provided pens or pencils for people to mark their ballot papers.

So they used the indelible ink on their finger to mark the papers.

10.20am: Selayang, Selangor - Although the indelible ink on his finger has 'faded', BN's Selayang parliamentary candidate Donald Lim does not think it is a problem.

"There are two processes in voting - one is the MyKad identification process and the other is to check for ink," he tells reporters after visiting the polling centre in SK Selayang Baru 2.

"It's not easy to bring a fake MyKad ... (Moreover,) both sides have observers to check the name (on the electoral roll)."

Lim had earlier cast his ballot at the Petaling Jaya Selatan constituency.

He remains confident  that Selangor MCA will win half of the seven parliamentary seats and 14 state seats being contested.

"In life we have to aim high ... well, at least this stage, yes (we will win 50 percent)."