Sg Limau: A lower voter turnout of 85.5%

The Election Commission (EC) fell short of its 90% target today when only 85.5%, or 23,249 voters came out to cast their votes in the Sungai Limau by-election.

All 17 polling centres closed as the voting process, which began from 8am this morning, concluded at 5pm today.

In the 13th General Election, voter turnout was higher at 89.3% with 24,406 votes cast.

Earlier, ballot boxes were brought to the Dewan Lukman Al-Hakim, SMK Agama Yan for counting. Results are expected to be announced at 9pm later.

Voting began this morning at 8am, with good weather allowing a good number of Sungai Limau folk to fulfil their obligations in the N20 Sungai Limau by-election.

The PAS candidate, Mohd Azam Abd Samat, 37, cast his vote at the SK Bukit Besar, Kota Sarang Semut polling centre at about 8.30am together with his wife, Taqhiyah Ismail, 32.

“Alhamdulillah, the weather this morning is good although earlier we thought it would rain, so we hope the voting process goes well and transparently to ensure that we (PAS) retain this area,” said Mohd Azam when approached by reporters.

The Barisan Nasional candidate, Dr Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim, arrived at Sekolah Kebangsaan Dulang with his family at 8.40am to vote.

Although the EC has advised political parties against setting up ‘pondok panas’ or voter reference booths, Barisan Nasional and PAS both had their own in the polling centres.

Astro AWANI also observed that there were vote pullers from both political parties which heated up further the voting atmosphere today.

At 9.15am, UMNO vice-president Datuk Shafie Apdal together with Jerlun MP Datuk Othman Aziz was spotted at a polling centre. They were greeted with shouts of “Allahuakbar” when walking past PAS supporters and party members.

Also seen was PAS’s election director for this by-election, Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah and former Kuala Selangor MP, Datuk Dzulkefli Ahmad.

There were no major untoward incident though there were reported vocal provocations from supporters of both parties.

In several separate incidents, EC had disallowed media personnel – namely reporters from a Chinese daily and KiniTV – from the voting area in SK Bukit Besar.

The journalists were said to have contravened the election laws by interviewing voters within the school compound.

Meanwhile, Astro AWANI was also at SM Agama Nahdzah, Batu 12, Bukit Besar about 60 meters from SK Bukit Besar.

There was a 2km long traffic jam from both directions, Jalan Alor Star-Guar Chempedak. This situation caused the voters and villagers to park their vehicles at the curb.

The traffic crawl was worsened by the crowd of supporters from both BN and PAS. They were seen approaching voters and holding placards and banners.

Despite these drawback, voters’ spirits were not dampened as they filled the various polling centres in the bright and sunny weather today.

At about 11am earlier, Kedah Menteri Besar, Datuk Mukhriz Tun Mahathir spent some time visiting the polling stations. He was greeted by both BN and PAS supporters alike.

Mukhriz said that he hoped that the elected representatives are really capable of fulfilling the mandate of the voters.

“I hope that the voters are not influenced because what we want today is a representative that can really give the best service for the people. We don’t choose a person because the other is not good,” he said.