Elections are often a time of ugly mudslinging among political opponents, and the truly tiring work of canvassing for votes.

However, amid the buzz of the election campaign, there still are lighter moments of laughter, warmth and those that come out of the blue.

Asked for her campaign stories, Perak PKR Youth vice-chief Sandrea Ng shared an anecdote involving her party colleague.

Ng said that while campaigning for PKR’s Batu Lintang candidate See Chee How in a village, her colleague looked very worried the entire time.

As it turned out, the colleague had an accident during her last visit there.

“We asked her what’s wrong, and she said that when she was there a few days earlier to make arrangements (for See’s visit), she slipped, and fell, and broke one of the pedestrian bridges.

“So she was very worried and very upset – what if she damages the facilities of the villagers (again)? Another thing is that, she was so worried that because of that incident, Chee How might lose in that area.

“So, for the whole afternoon, she was very upset and feeling very guilty,” Ng told Malaysiakini when contacted.

She explained that the village is located in a flood-prone area, so the houses there are built on stilts and connected to one another through raised walkways; walkways like the ‘bridge’ her colleague broke.

Another story Ng related took place when See hosted a session to watch football with his constituents.

See gave a short speech before the match between Leicester City and Manchester United, and the crowd settled down to enjoy the game.

Later, a voter arrived. After looking around awkwardly, she asked how long does a football match last, and was shocked to learn that it would last 90 minutes.

As it would turn out, the voter is a supporter of See. She was not interested in football, but was there hoping to hear him speak and thought she would have to wait until the end of the game.

“In the end, we let Chee How speak at half-time, so that the aunt could go home happily,” Ng said.

To a question, Ng confirmed that See’s half-time speech was not planned and was arranged just for the voter, as it would be too much to make her wait 90 minutes to just hear See speak.

A phone call out of the blue

The DAP’s candidate for Piasau, Alan Ling, told Malaysiakini about a phone call he received, out of the blue.

In an incredulous tone, Ling said it was from the independent candidate, Louis Jalong, saying that he wanted to join DAP. And that too, right in the middle of the election campaign.

“That guy, Louis. He called me and SMS’ed me on the sixth or seventh day of the campaigning. He said he wanted to join DAP. What is the purpose?

“He wanted to meet me. Where am I, he asked me. I didn’t want to respond. I just told him, ‘after the election; if you want to join, you join’,” Ling () said.

He explained that he had no qualms about Louis wanting to join DAP, before or after the election campaign, but was is very suspicious that Louis wanted to join while he was running as an independent against PKR’s Elia Bit and BN’s Penguang Manggil.

If he and Louis are seen together, Ling said, it would fuel allegations that DAP had planted Louis in Marudi to undermine PKR’s bid for the seat.

When contacted, Louis, a hotel manager, confirmed that he had contacted Ling to express interest in joining DAP.

However, he declined to comment further, saying that the matter had already passed. Since Ling never replied, DAP did not appear to be interested in him either, Louis said.

In Sibu, DAP party worker Billy Wong expressed his frustrations with the hiccups in organising the Skype ceramah for DAP leaders who had been barred from entering Sarawak.

It started in Sibu alone, but things got complicated when the speeches were also broadcasted simultaneously to other cities in Sarawak.

For Wong, sitting at the controls at the Sibu ceramah, it was a very stressful ordeal when the people at the other venues forgot to turn off their microphones.

“This is DAP’s first time using this technology in Sarawak… that is our technical challenge, but it is also very funny because sometimes the people in the other cities forgot to turn off their microphones.

“So basically, we can listen to ceramah in other cities. It was like, ‘Eh? I thought it was Hew Kuan Yau giving a speech? How come I can hear other candidates giving a speech?’,” he said.

As speeches from Kuching, Bintulu, and Miri reached the ears of the Sibu audience, heads started to turn towards the controls, where Wong was stationed.

“We kept screaming to our WhatsApp groups: Please turn off your microphones! Come on!

“It was so embarrassing. Those moments were quite stressful, but when we think back about it, it was quite funny also,” Wong said.