Gelang Patah updates

I am setting this posting as updates for the Gelang Patah contest between DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang against outgoing Johor BN chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman.

I will update this posting from time to time with whatever little bit of information that I got throughout the day.

Kit Siang started the day as favorite while Ghani is the underdog in this Chinese-majority constituency.

As of 10am

Voters turn out was reportedly low in the first half of the morning compared with other constituency.  I was told that the number of Chinese voters who had casted their votes as of 10am was almost five times higher than the Malay voters. It was believed that the heavy rain in morning was the cause of Malays in the more rural areas to wait till afternoon to cast their vote.

As of 12pm

I'm on the road from Gelang Patah town heading to Pendas. It's still raining quite heavily. Saw a long queue at the MBJBT hall which is a polling centre just now. Heard that election workers are scrambling to get voters to such polling centers. If the rain persists, and BN supporters failed to come out in full force due to the  rain, Gelang Patah will have Lim Kit Siang as their MP.

As of 1pm

Stuck at Kampung Pekajang. The heavy rain caused a tree to fell and block the main road here. A fire engine just arrived to clear the mess. More time wasted for voters in this BN stronghold to get to polling stations. Hopefully BN machinery will go all out to get supporters out to vote in such areas over the last four hours before polling stations closes at 5pm. Meanwhile reports from DAP stronghold in Skudai indicated that voters there have no problem to get to polling stations in their more urban area.

As of 3pm

It's still raining in most part of Gelang Patah, but not as heavily as earlier in the day. BN election workers have apparently covered most of their bases of ferrying voters to polling centers. Most polling centers are seen to be quite quiet with not many people coming to cast votes at the final hours. Reports indicated that about 70 per cent voters in Gelang Patah had casted their votes, which is about the same average throughout Johor at the moment.

Received a call from my mother just now. She was concerned about rumors spread via Facebook that BN had send foreign workers to vote for the coalition. I assured her that no such thing happens. She was very worried with what her friends posted on their Facebook wall that the Pakatan people will hold demonstrations in case BN wins, claiming that the election was being rigged. Some of her friends were also spreading rumors that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had left the country in anticipation of a Pakatan victory. I told my mother to tell her friends to make up their mind on whether Pakatan will win or the election is rigged. These people are real nuisance. Anyway, I believe my mother voted DAP for State seat but gave BN her vote for parliament.

As of 4pm

Reports indicated that DAP is leading BN in Gelang Patah. The last hour of polling will be crucial. It was said that a lot of Malay voters failed to turn up to cast their votes due to the heavy rain earlier in the day. A last ditch effort is being made to get them to vote. Hopefully the final push will save the day.

As of 5pm

With the polling centers now closed, it looks to me that DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang may hold a slight edge over outgoing Johor MB Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman.
However, BN election workers insisted they had done their best to get the coalition supporters to cast their votes.
"We made the final push two hours ago and may just probably got enough votes to ensure a BN victory," said one of the party workers.
He added that in rural Gelang Patah, they managed to get about 70 per cent of voters there to cast their votes.

As of 6.30pm

A commotion broke out in the Gelang Patah town when a group of about 100 motorcyclists caused a havoc there. They had earlier went to the polling centers in the nearby Malay area and tried to prevent ballot boxes from being taken out to counting centers. Several FRU trucks were rushed there to control the situation.

It was also learnt that an upset result may happened in the Chinese-majority Skudai area. The commotion in the Gelang Patah town was said to be related to that possibility.