PD POLLS | This Saturday's Port Dickson by-election will perhaps provide a glimpse of how the military – which forms nearly 10 percent of the voters in this constituency – will vote, now that BN is no longer in power.

In this constituency, there are 6,690 army voters and 578 police voters. They will vote today in the early voting process.

Historically, the Armed Forces have been regarded as BN's "fixed deposit" and the May 9 general election showed that the military, at least in Port Dickson, was not on Pakatan Harapan's side.

In the GE14, BN bagged 51 percent of the postal and early votes in Port Dickson, followed by PAS (27 percent) and Harapan (19 percent).

The largest concentration of military voters was at the Army Basic Training Centre (Pusasda) polling station, where BN gained three times the votes (1,619) that Harapan won (586). At this polling station, PAS pulled nearly double (1,027) that of PKR's score.

But now that BN is in the opposition and is not even in the Port Dickson race, this by-election might test the idea of whether the military is inclined to support the government of the day.

So far, a straw poll of army personnel in Port Dickson revealed that most of those approached will either support or at least consider voting for Harapan's candidate Anwar Ibrahim (photo).

More importantly, none of those polled openly expressed that it was necessary to support the government of the day.

A 33-year-old corporal, who only wished to be known as Yeop, said he has voted three times in Port Dickson and always for BN.

This time around, he hasn't made up his mind, although he was leaning towards PAS because the party had fielded a fellow serviceman – retired lieutenant-colonel Mohd Nazari Mokhtar.

"Yes, former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak may have committed wrongs, but humans make mistakes. His welfare policies for the servicemen were good though," he said.

As for Anwar, Yeop believes that the Harapan candidate has already made two missteps – firstly, forcing an unnecessary by-election, which he believed was a waste of resources; and secondly, appearing at a medal ceremony on Oct 3 when other candidates did not have the same privilege.

"Anwar should not come here as he is not a local. The only local candidate is the independent Mohd Isa Samad, but I don't want him either," Yeoh said.

A soldier who wished to be known only as Fitri, 35, said he supported Harapan in GE14 and will do so again.

"I supported Harapan during the last election, after noticing something wrong with the previous administration," said the soldier from the Si Rusa Army Camp.

While acknowledging that the current administration had trouble fulfilling some of its election promises, Fitri said more time was needed as the new administration was only four months old.

Rosli, a 42-year-old sergeant, said he voted for Harapan on May 9 as well because he didn't like Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor.

He believes that Anwar has the military's welfare at heart and that the other candidates will not be able to help the Armed Forces if they are voted in.

"There is no use for me to vote for PAS as the party is unable to bring development to Port Dickson," Rosli added.

Richard, a 47-year-old staff sergeant, said he was not decided who he would vote for, although he did show an inclination to support the government of the day.

Apart from Anwar, Isa and Nazari, there are four other candidates for the Oct 13 by-election: Stevie Chan Keng Leong, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Lau Seck Yan and Kan Chee Yuen.

The names of these four independent candidates were not mentioned by the military personnel interviewed.