Today is 5th may 2013, the election date of Malaysia. It's about 1pm now, and I came back from Singapore to Melaka just to vote. Being a first time voter, and one of the few in SPS to come back to vote, I've written some of the experience on site.
On the line to Taman Kasturi I. MELAKA on 10:30am in the morning. The line is shorter thanI thought, Only about 100-200 people. There was a conversation happening behind me. From there I got the rumor that a left handed person requested that his/her right hand to be marked with indelible ink, but was not approved. Some people noticed that their ballot paper was marked, but the request to change was met with someone assuring that they didn't cheat one... Note these are just rumors I heard.
Lining up under the shade of trees is nice. There's 4 staffs in the initial phase, checking the IC and giving people their lines. There are 4 unmarked lines. The same people who were conversing behind me, one of them having voted very early in the morn, and his friend queuing up behind me, said that he lined up wrongly due to the unmarked line and had wasted 1 hour lining up again. Now it's 10:50am.
I got into the area for voting, it's a small place, actually a centre in the town, with a playground just outside. There were police there too, helping in lining people up. When I am in, another conversation started behind me. A female voter said that she registered to vote in melaka despite staying in Selangor to switch melaka to the Pakatan rakyat side. She said that there ions 2 times she voted in melaka, there were not so many people, the voting process is much faster.
Well, I was expecting more people and 5-6 hours of waiting, so the line seems short to me.
Then came for the time for me to vote. The police officer outside told me to leave my water bottle out, the reason, asked by the female voter behind me, was to avoid wetting the ballot papers. I entered, with tissue in one hand and my IC in another. Then I gave the first clerk my identification card, the second marked my left index finger, the third gave me 2 ballot paper, clean as it is, one for the state another for the parliament of the country. I came to the back of the voting place, there's 2 of the place, with multiple black ball pen and 3 sides covered up. Stricter than any exam I've seen. Well, I took my time and saw the not BN symbol there and put a neat cross beside it. Both of the ballot paper. No idea who the candidates are anyway.
The female behind me had finished putting her votes into the clear box in the middle of the centre, and I was just starting to fold the 2 ballot papers into half. I was glad that it was colour coded so that I know which paper goes into which transparent box. Then I'm out. Seriously, nothing special.
I was hoping for a longer line so that me preparations can be used, but all well, i 50 mins, I've finished voting. Then I went back to try to wash the ink on my hand. It came off a bit, not that easy to clear it all off. Washed with soup a bit and then it got lighter. Looking atmy families case, it is safe to say that the claim of indelible ink which cannot be washed away for days is untrue. But to be fair, we should try putting permanent marker ink on the other hand after we voted and try to wash that off as hard too. To compare the quality of the ink used in the election.
I should be going back now to help lookout for foreign voters who were given malaysian Identification Card just a few days ago to mess with malaysia's election process.
The news in Malaysia had BN denied that they were foreign voters, yet more and more evidences keep on floating up on Facebook.
See ya.
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