My Experience Being a Polling & Counting Agent II

Continuing from where I left off on the blog entry posted on 11 March 2008. Time didn't permit me to post this topic earlier as I left the country the day after election for Abu Dhabi and came back on Thursday afternoon. Managed to log on to the internet on Thursday evening and by the time I finished my dinner, I was totally knocked out at 8.30pm due to jet lag.

Was on leave on Friday as needed to attend to personal stuff and went to see my new house which was still under construction, I went to the showroom instead to note down details on where I could improve/renovate. Need to plan from now onwards even though I might get the keys next March 2009.

Back to my main topic, to finish off my experience in being a polling agent.

............ Was it raining? Nope, almost but the sky cleared up again with the hot sun ray shining down on earth, maybe my area lah. As the classroom had only 3 ceiling fans, we could feel the blistering heat and was sweating too. I wonder how I survived such classroom atmosphere last time and moreover, kids nowadays have more comfort at all compared to me. And they didn't complain about such heat in the afternoon. Phew!

More shameful events (shameful to those who didn't register or registered but didn't vote):-
a) My mom walked more than 1km to vote
As I need to leave house so early to report for duty as a polling agent, I can't fetch her for election for the first time. We vote at the same polling station. As my mom needs to go off for work in the morning, she went ahead to walk to the polling station at a nearby school. Estimated 1km from my house. She was born in the year 1943.

b) A man with a walking stick
At my polling centre where I was on duty, a man between the age of 59 to 65 (can't recall the age but he voted in my classroom which was this age range) walked into the classroom with a walking stick.

He needed to pause while walking as I presumed, either his leg was painful or he was tired walking all the way into the school. Nevertheless, he made it. He crossed his ballot paper and tried walking to the ballot box. He walked slowly with the pain or tiredness. Could see his face changed the moment he cast that ballot. A duty done as a Malaysian citizen and walked out of the school compound slowly without help.

Just found out that a blogger friend has registered herself as a voter just this week itself and she would be eligible for the next election. Well done Huei! Proud of you.

Other weird happenings in my classroom:-
i) this voter (a chinese guy) came in and the Election Commission officer read out his reference number. He asked the officer to wait for a while, took the officer's pen and wrote something down on a white piece of paper. That officer looked him, looked at us 2 polling agents and suddenly the voter said "nak ambil nombor bagi 4 ekor" [taking down the number to buy 4 ekor - a kind of gambling similar to lottery where you predict the 4 numbers (1 to 10 in any arrangement) that would be the winning number].

I nearly died sitting down there hearing that statement. All of us in the classroom smiled (trying very hard not to laugh) but we laughed after he left the classroom.

ii) this voter (another chinese guy) walked in and showed the Election Commission officer his driving licence. Of course and naturally, the officer asked for his identity card. This fella, if law permits I would have whacked the daylight out of him, said the following sentence "Why driving licence cannot ah? It's allowed what! International passport also can".

The Returning Officer nodded his head and the Election Commission officer read out his particular. He thought his 1 vote was so valuable that he could be throw his knowledge on what could or could not be accepted in identifying a voter.

iii) a voter (I think an eurasian this time) strolled in during late afternoon and stood there quoting us his reference number. The officer asked for his identity card and this man said "I have already shown my identity card just now to those people out there".

You see, some people tried to show how smart they were but didn't know that it was their stupidity that they were carrying at that point of time. If this fella was voting for the first time, I would excuse him for it.

iv) Carol Chew, the other election candidate that was challenging the incumbent at Seputeh, walked into my school compound in the late afternoon. Suddenly, the school was abuzz with many people. As there were lesser voters in the afternoon, we could relax a bit and see the commotion outside our classroom which was facing the main school gate.

Reporters came along too plus some of Carol Chew's supporters at both of her sides. She chit chat with those Election Commission officers seated at the canteen area who checks voters details. Out of the canteen and nearer to the school block where the voting classrooms were situated. An Election Commission worker was pushing in a wheelchair bound voter towards the walkway where Carol Chew was standing. I saw one of her aides signalled to Carol Chew to help out.

She quickly walked over and actually put her 2 hands on the armrest/handle and actually stood there for a while for the reporters to take pictures of her doing that "good deed". I called my leader and told him of the situation and was told to report to the Head of Election Commission ("EC") team in my school.

I told him that I wanted to protest on an event and he actually followed me as I explained to him of the situation. I said to him quite loud just outside the classrooms and told him that it was unfair of Carol Chew doing such a thing in front of so many voters who were still walking in to vote. I said that such act could just turn a voter's decision into her advantage. I also said that if she wanted to do it, couldn't she do it outside the school compound.

The Head of EC agreed but said that he was not informed of her coming in with so many outsiders. I replied even louder this time "You mean the police didn't know about this rule even though all of them were standing around the school compound area?".

Hehehehehehehehe............ the reason I said that loudly while pointing at the Head of police contingent (a Sergeant rank) was because he was already standing besides the Head of EC at that point of time. That policeman was stunned actually. He looked at me and I stared at him with a disappointed face shaking my head (left right left right). I also noticed a reporter taking my picture ........... without asking my permission?????

Not letting go of the opportunity to talk, I continued with "the reason I chose to be a polling agent was to see fairness in the election and this is what I'm seeing with my own eyes". The Head of EC apologised to me straightaway and both of them proceeded to Carol Chew's group and talked to them where they moved out slowly.

My leader came back in a short while and called me out of my classroom and enquired what happened......... hehehehe. He went out fetching another guy to another school for duty replacement purpose.

My Barisan Nasional ("BN") polling agent counterpart has a substitution. Another guy came in to replace the lady who started in the morning. He was from Kajang. From our conversation during free time, he did say that it was wasting time to watch over the polls in Seputeh area knowingly DAP would win for sure. I asked why did he come then and he said it was his friend (the leader) who requested for his help.

As time passes by, the group of us in classroom 3 kept reminding each other "45 minutes to go", then "30 minutes to go". One of them joked "nobody will come at this hour". To our surprise 2 more came in within the last 30 minutes and we smiled at each other. At 4.58pm, one voter walked into the classroom but her reference number doesn't appear in our listing. We told her to run to the next classroom. When we looked at the main gate, there were people running to whatever classrooms they were supposed to vote. Typical Malaysians?

Ok ........ 5pm, everyone in the classroom agreed to close the classroom doors. Each classroom has an assigned policeman and he stood guard in our classroom too.

more tension later on ....................... to be continued ..................

Related posts:-
* My Experience Being a Polling & Counting Agent I
* I am a Polling and Counting Agent in GE12
Tags: Polling Agent, Counting Agent, Malaysia, 12th General Election, Barisan Nasional, BN, Democratic Action Party, DAP, Election Commission, Returning Officer