Compared with the spirited campaigning often seen during elections in the peninsula, campaigning in this Sarawak electtion has been rather tame.

Visits by Malaysiakini to several polling centres in Pusa in the state seat of Beting Maro saw almost no campaigners from contesting parties on the ground, neither from BN nor Pakatan.

Only Pakatan campaign workers were seen to have constructed the pondok panas, despite Election Commission forbidding such structures near polling centres.

There was also almost no friction among voters from both sides, who simply went straight home after casting their votes.

There was no shouting, yelling or taunting, as has been usual when supporters of opposing parties meet in the peninsula.

This may be due to the local culture of politeness, or the strong bonds among the local community. Most polling centres were closed early, some as early as 11.30am and others around 3pm.

The reason for the early closure in some areas is because of the many small polling stations set up in the longhouses in order to facilitate the voting process in interior areas.

The small numbers of voters, between 20 and several hundred in these polling stations, saw voting end before the official 5pm closing time. Many of these stations closed from 9am to 1pm, enabling the counting process to start early.

A small altercation in Satok

However, the quiet and calm atmosphere at the Malay majority state seat of Satok was broken by a slight altercation about noon today.

The heated situation broke out when PBB youth chief Fadilah Yusof confronted a woman who identified herself as a PKR polling agent outside the gates to the SK Merpati Jepang polling centre.

Fadilah accused the woman of impersonating an election commission officer to canvass for votes for PKR, but the woman said she was approaching a police officer to ask why a man wearing a BN T-shirt was allowed into the centre.

"I was also asking him how many entrances are there for the centre, as I see people entering from the other side as well," the woman said, to nods by the police officer she was referring to.

Fadilah then pushed away another PKR polling agent who came to the woman's aide, and snatched his EC-supplied polling agent tag, urging the media to take pictures of it.

The PKR man then yelled, "Don't push me! Respect the law! You are a YB and you are direspecting the law!"

This incited a PBB supporter who charged at the PKR man and accused him of disrespecting Fadilah. Others present stopped the PBB supporter, telling him this "this is a polling centre, not a fighting ring".

Police moved in and got the growing crowd, including PBB supporters who told the PKR lot to "go back to the peninsula", to not breach the 50-metre distance from the polling centre.

A Light Strike Force was then deployed to guard the centre, which had earlier been fairly loosely guarded by many not wearing EC-released passes who were seen freely walking in and out.

Voters from different streams are directed to different buildings in the same centre, some to the primary and some to the secondary school, possibly raising suspicions of phantom voters among the PKR agents.

Quiet and peaceful

elsewhere

Reports from Sibu show that despite the fiery ceramah and heated campaigning, polling in the third largest city in Sarawak has been quiet and peaceful.

Unmarred by the chaotic incidents seen in Kuching, the biggest complaint received was Meradong candidate Ting Tze Fui's allegations of vote-buying in her constituency.

DAP candidate for Bawang Assan Alice Lau rang alarm bells when she said that returning officer Wong See Men was peeking over shoulders of the voters when they were marking the ballot papers.

Denying this, Wong said that he was only keeping a close eye over the welfare of the elderly, "in case they slip and fall".

Apart from that, polling in city and the suburban areas have been a quiet affair with hardly any canvassers around.

There was a bit of a fanfare though, when Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng made his rounds at some of the polling centres together with the DAP candidates, with voters flocking to take pictures with him.