Bukit Gelugor by-election: Early birds cast their votes
(The Star) – Voters will decide Sunday through the ballot box on who will be representing the Bukit Gelugor Parliamentary seat here.
Farmer C. K Lye, 62 arrived the earliest at the polling centre at SMK Georgetown in Lorong Batu Lanchang, one of the polling stations in the constituency.
“I arrived at 7.30am when there were only Election Commission (EC) officials at the station, he said.
“I came early to avoid the crowd.
“Besides that, I do not have off days … working 365 days a year,” he said, adding that he needs to get back to work.
Some 10 voters had started queuing up at the respective polling areas even before the voting process starts at 8am.
Some of the early birds at SMK Georgetown
At SMK Air Itam, a huge crowd could be seen waiting to cast their votes.
Police were seen directing streams of traffic and voters.
Sungai Puyu state assemblyman Phee Boon Poh said some 1000 voluntary patrol unit personnel will be deployed throughout the Bukit Gelugor polling stations.
Sungai Dondang alone has the highest number of voters with an expected 18,000 people voting.
Seventeen polling stations opened at 8am. Voting will end at 5pm.
The by-election sees a four-cornered fight between DAP candidate Ramkarpal Singh, Parti Cinta Malaysia vice-president Datuk Huan Cheng Guan and two Independent candidates, Mohd Nabi Bux Mohd Abdul Sathar and Abu Backer Sidek Mohammad Zan.
The Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat fell vacant when its MP Karpal Singh was killed in a road mishap on April 17.
There are 82,431 registered voter s in Bukit Gelugor with 74.33% (61,267) Chinese, 14.45% (11,913) Malays, 10.73% (8,848) Indians and 0.49% (403) of other races.
