At the Check-out Counter for a New Malaysia

The 14th General Elections (GE14) was called on the 9th of May, a Thursday. The BN government declared it a public holiday, so there was no issue of local voters having to take time off. For outstation voters, it was another matter. For the first time, my polling station was actually in Selangor, at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara. I managed to change my address in the electoral roll before it was gazetted. Previously, I voted in the Seputeh, a federal constituency. A neighbour tumpang-ed mum and I to the polling station. We arrived at around 8:30 AM, and the crowd was already building. Managed to find parking away from the school area, at the BK5 commercial area. Mild campaigning was going on opposite the stay, mostly providing service to check the electoral roll.



Before entering voting, one had to endure to queues. The first was the queue to enter the polling station. The polling agents at the entrance would direct voters to the different polling stations. Truth be told, the agents weren't doing a good job of dispersing the traffic, hence creating an unnecessary queue outside the school. The second queue was to the polling station (located in a different classrooms). My queue was pretty long, and progress was very slow. I was standing in line for more than an hour. An Indian teacher was behind me, and we had an interesting conversation about the current state of education in the public school system. Apart from the usual complain that teachers spend more time on administrative work rather than actual teaching, I was shocked to learn that teachers can't even give the students 'THE STARE'. Wow. So impotent. Imagine how many teacher pull their hair out on a daily basis. When I finally arrived at the voting room, I noticed that the arrangement was a little f*cked up. When lining up at the entrance of the class, one can actually get a view of the person voting at the nearest booth. Good grief.



When my turn came, I handed over my identity card for cross-reference against the electoral roll. None of the polling agents complained so they proceeded to dip my right index finger into the indelible ink. The lady wasn't satisfied with the result, so she dunked my finger in again. With the other hand, I took the ballot papers (rumours were flying around that some of the ballot papers were not properly stamped at some polling stations)-- one for Parliament and one for the State Legislative Council. I walked to the booth, gingerly flattened out the ballot papers (mindful not to stain the papers) and put a mark for Malaysia Baru! Folded my papers and dropped them in their corresponding boxes.



There, I had fulfilled my responsibility as a citizen of Malaysia. Met up mum at the entrance. As expected, the senior citizens queue was much faster. We walked over to Restoran 555 for breakfast. The place was bustling with customers! Was kinda pissed that my order didn't come. The uncle who manned the wantan noodles stall was swamped. He had to cook, send the food, collect money, etc. In my opinion, he was glad that I cancelled my order because he couldn't cope.



When polling ended at 5:00 PM, all the PACA volunteers went into overdrive. The counting agents started the process of counting and making sure that there was no hanky-panky during the process. All sorts of drama erupted from all over Malaysia-- stories of ballot boxes being transported into certain polling stations, SPR agents not signing the official results, etc. Everyone was holding their breath. Mum and I watched whatever videos that were available online. The results were being closely monitored. Even by midnight, there was no clear answer. The SPR didn't give a proper explanation for the delays. I just went to sleep thinking that things would just remain status quo. But I was wrong....