FREE BY-ELECTIONS What's happening in the by-election campaigns in the parliamentary constituency of Batu Sapi and the Galas state seat? Quotable quotes, planned events and unplanned incidents as they occur in P185 and N45.
8am-5pm (Batu Sapi): A total of 1,014 out of 1,615 postal voters for
the Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election cast their votes today.
According to
Bernama
, they comprise 663 members of the General Operations Force, Royal Malaysia Police (271) and Election Commission workers (80), who cast their votes at the GOF Office in Karamunting, Sandakan Mara Vocational Centre and Sandakan Municipal Council (MPS) Office, respectively.
The rest of the postal voters, numbering 601 and comprising members of the Royal Malaysian Navy, will cast their votes at Taman Samudera tomorrow.
According to Bernama , 24,047 normal voters in Batu Sapi, the polling day was set on Thursday at 12 polling centres, involving 11 schools and a public library in Sandakan.
8am (Batu Sapi): PKR candidate Ansari Abdullah has breakfast at Restoran Sedap Koner, Batu 8. Goes on walkabout at Pasar Sibuga Batu 8.
8am (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz Yusof breakfasts at Gua Musang train station.
9am (Galas): Federal government holds a ceremony to give six ambulances, 10 fogging machines, a portable ultrasound machine and a haemodialysis machine to the Gua Musang Hospital and Health Department.
9am (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz with election director Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at Bukit Cekati.
9.50am
(Galas): Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar goes for a walkabout in Kampung Baru Cina Gua Musang.
10am: PAS admits that Gua Musang MP Razaleigh Hamzah still wields considerable influence in Galas.
Saying this today, however, PAS election director Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman ( left ) also accuses Razaleigh of paying Galas voters for their support.
Answering Election Commission’s snipe at PAS' offer of transportation fees to outstation voters as a bribe, Halim says the party only wants to help the EC by increasing voter turnout.
Halim also says the RON 97 fuel hike was “wrong timing” for BN and may have an effect on the by-election.
11am (Galas): DAP launches a new set of leaflets highlighting the manhandling of 'Malaysians for Beng Hock' activists last Saturday.
Its campaign coordinator Vincent Wu says 2,000 copies of the leaflets will be distributed to three Chinese-majority areas: Kampung Baru Gua Musang, Bandar Lama and Kampung Baru Pulai.
In Batu Sapi , meanwhile, Batu Sapi Returning Officer Mohd Hamsan Awang Supain tells reporters at the polling centre for EC workers at the MPS Office that as of 11am, "the postal voting process at three polling centres had run smoothly."
11.45am
(Batu Sapi): PKR candidate Ansari Abdullah (
right
) tells press conference that falling off a jetty and a wooden walkway on the campaign trail is God's way of giving a clear example of BN's "incompetence" in managing basic infrastructure.
He adds it took a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner to discover that he had dislocated his right shoulder and suffered cracked ribs, while the medical officer who went through his first X-ray at the Duchess of Kent Hospital last Friday did not see it.
Ansari says further he wants further examinations on his injuries but found no CAT scan available, so he ended up going for a second X-ray which revealed hairline fractures on two of his rib bones.
"God has chosen me to be a manifestation of the incompetence of the federal and state governments," he said.
12noon (Batu Sapi): BN candidate Linda Tsen has lunch with the press at Sri Libaran.
1.15pm
(Galas): Another banner has
again
raised the ire of PAS in Galas over its alliance with DAP, this time by raising the issue of the latter’s Serdang MP
Teo Nie Ching
addressing the members of the al Hidayay surau in Selangor.
The banner, hung in front of a police beat in Kampung Batu Puith, was taken down by PAS workers around noon time today.
It read: ‘
Pemimpin DAP beri tazkirah di surau, kenapa PAS sokong rumah Allah dihina?
’ (A DAP leader gives a sermon in a surau, why does PAS allow a house of Allah to be insulted?)
Galas by-election machinery advisor Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Abdullah ( top photo, second from right ) says the workers brought down the banner as part of its assistance to Election Commission (EC) enforcement officials.
“Although EC has three enforcement teams, perhaps the commission cannot monitor the whole electoral district (of Galas) since it is so large.
“Hanging up such a banner is an irresponsible act, since it does not say who it’s by... They took the opportunity to incite anger and hatred,” says Rahim.
“We won’t lodge a complaint since our experience in the Manek Urai by-election has taught us the police will not act.
“Perhaps they (the EC enforcers) are busy. We’re just helping them.”
2pm (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz to meet Indian community at Taman Tropika.
2pm
(Batu Sapi): BN's Tsen to visit Taman Mawar phases 5, 6 and 7. Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, meanwhile, has a meal with journalists in his private resident at Libaran, near Batu Sapi. He said he is confident in winning both Chinese and bumiputra voters, but refuses to set a target for BN majority.
Also at the lunch is Tsen, who says she has a "secret strategy" in the last day of campaign. "You wait and see."
3pm (Galas): Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai to hold meet-and-greet session with locals.
3pm (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz to meet army veterans.
3.30pm (Batu Sapi): A booklet in colour, titled "Siapa Sahabat Anwar Ibrahim Di Luar Negara?" is being distributed in Batu Sapi.
The booklet, allegedly printed by the "Reveal The Facts Group", details the links between Anwar and foreign leaders who are said to be supporting the Israel regime.
4pm (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz to have dialogue with Deputy Energy, Water and Green Technology Minister Noriah Kasnon at Tanah Putih.
5pm (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz at Batu Papan.
5.30pm (Batu Sapi): PKR defectors Amir Bak and Abdullah Medan hold a press conference with Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan at Sanbay Hotel, to repeat their stand that Pakatan Rakyat will use Batu Sapi voters to achieve their ambition of national power.
Amir, who was PKR Batu Sapi division deputy chief before he and Abdullah, the division vice-chair,defected to Umno last week, said the issues raised by the opposition are no longer relevant to the realities faced by Sabahans.
"If the opposition wins, they will all go back to where they came from and they will not come back to take care of the people of Batu Sapi," he added.
6.00pm (Galas) Sudden PC by PAS election director Fatah Harun at the party's election campaign HQ.
7.15pm
(Galas)
: Ku Li (
left
) to hold a Deepavali do with local Indians at the BN campaign HQ in Bukit Celati.
8pm (Galas): The "1Malaysia Mesra Rakyat" dinner organised by the self-proclaimed 1Malaysia NGO, draws more than 1,200 locals in Kampung Baru Pulai.
The dinner is open to all for free, offering beer, dishes, lucky draws and song and dance perfomances.
Most of the dancers wear spaghetti strap tops and shorts, while performing Chinese songs on stage.
Some local folks shout "1Malaysia" instead of "Yum Seng!" before drinking the beer.
There is no political speech as promised by the organiser, but the BN candidate Abdul Aziz appears in the event to shake hands with the attendees.
8pm (Batu Sapi): Pakatan is holding a free dinner at Keranamu seafood restaurant. Pakatan big guns are here including Anwar Ibrahim, R. Sivarasa, and Chua Jui Meng. However, when Ansari started giving a speech at 8pm, only half of some 25 tables were full.
As most of the people in attendance are Christians, Anwar and Ansari both talked about Christianity.
Anwar also revealed in his speech that Hillary Clinton called him around 8pm and said she is concerned about the rule of law in Malaysia and the trial Anwar is facing.
According to Anwar, Clinton also apologised because she didn't know that Wan Azizah was present at the dialogue this morning in Kuala Lumpur because nobody introduced Wan Azizah to her.
9pm (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz will appear at Tanah Putih Dalam.
The tempo has increased with one additional ceramah venue as opposed to the usual two and nearly double the number of speakers.
However only Saifuddin Nasution is making the rounds to two venues as opposed to rotating schedule for speakers on most nights.
Ceramah 1: In Chinese area of Kampung Baru featuring Nik Aziz, Kit Siang, Guan Eng and Saifuddin Nasution.
Ceramah 2: In Malay area of Sungai Terah, with Amar Abdullah, Omar Mohamad, Salahuddin Ayub and Hatta Ramli.
Ceramah 3: In Malay and Chinese mixed area of Bandar Baru with Saifuddin Nasution, Badrul Hisham Shaharin, Tian Chua, Gobalakrisnan and Abdullah Mat Nawi.
9.30pm (Galas): A multiracial crowd of over a thousand floods the the field in Kampung Baru Gua Musang to listen to the big guns of Pakatan Rakyat in the ceramah.
The leaders schedule to speak include Lim Guan Eng, Lim Kit Siang, Tian Chua and Nga Kor Ming.
10pm (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz to arrive at Felcra Panggong Lalat.
10.45pm (Galas): BN candidate Abdul Aziz to meet youth at Batu Papan.
11.00
(Galas): DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng (
right)
says Pakatan need at least 75 percent of Chinese votes to support PAS to ensure a win in Galas.
Admitting for the first time that it's a tough fight, the Penang chief minister urged the Chinese voters to vote for the "moon" on Nov 4th.
"It's not a simple job to win, we need at least 75 percent of Chinese votes support us, can?"
"Now you all said 'can', but it's not simple to do it, as we only had 54 percent Chinese support in last GE," he told a ceramah perdana in Kampung Baru Gua Musang.
He also urges the travelling voters to come back hometown to vote, as the turnout rate will be an important winning factor for PAS.
Met by Malaysiakini later, Lim said 75 percent of Chinese support will bring a victory to PAS.
"Unless we can increase our Malay votes, we really need the Chinese support."
Asked if this mean PAS is not that optimistic in the race, he replied "I won't said not optimistic, but BN has been using all the money and resources in this campaign."
