PD POLLS | DAY 13 | Campaigning by the seven candidates running in the Port Dickson by-election continues today.
Malaysiakini brings you live reports of the campaigning on the ground.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS:
- Anwar jokes about offering consultation on prison life
- Employers urged to allow workers to vote
- Return to vote, ensure ‘transitional justice’, outstation voters told
- PAS candidate sleeps in his car at night, between events
12am: Thank you for following our live updates of day 13 of the Port Dickson by-election campaign. This thread is now closed.
Anwar jokes about offering consultation on prison life
5.22pm – PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim today jokingly offered his services as a consultant to anyone who wants to know about life in prison.
The offer also stands for certain VIPs facing trial, he said, drawing laughter from the audience at a celebrity chef programme for women, as he campaigned as a candidate in the Port Dickson parliamentary by-election.
The Pakatan Harapan candidate said life in jail was difficult but he had served his time patiently until his release.
He said he was well looked after in jail by the prison staff and some of them had expressed their sympathy for him.
“The prison staff expressed sympathy and supported PKR on the quiet,” he said.
Anwar had been in jail for almost nine years, from 1998 to 2004 and from 2015 until May this year.
The Port Dickson by-election is a seven-cornered contest among Anwar, Lt Col (Rtd) Mohd Nazari Mokhtar of PAS and five independent candidates. Among the independent candidates are former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Mohd Isa Abdul Samad and Anwar’s former personal aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
The seat was vacated by Danyal Balagopal Abdullah of PKR on Sept 12 to enable Anwar to contest the by-election and become an MP.
In the 14th general election on May 9, Danyal, 68, had won the seat with a majority of 17,710 votes, beating VS Mogan of BN and Mahfuz Roslan of PAS. – Bernama
Employers urged to allow workers to vote
4:57: Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun has urged employers to give their workers time off to vote in the Port Dickson parliamentary by-election this Saturday.
He said employers need to stagger employee shifts to enable staff to vote and not have their operations disrupted.
“I have also been in touch with representatives of the Hotel Association in Port Dickson for this flexibility and they have agreed to allow workers (time off) to vote. We hope there will be no restrictions, and that employers will encourage voting,” he said.
Aminuddin said he also hoped that outstation voters would return to Port Dickson to fulfil their responsibilities.
The Port Dickson parliamentary seat was vacated by incumbent Danyal Balagopal Abdullah on Sept 12, to enable Anwar Ibrahim to stand for election and return to the Dewan Rakyat.
The Election Commission has set the polling day for this Saturday.
The Port Dickson parliamentary constituency has 75,770 registered voters, comprising 43 percent Malays, Chinese (33 per cent), Indians (22 per cent) and other ethnicities (two percent). – Bernama
Return to vote, ensure ‘transitional justice’, outstation voters told
2.00pm – Lukut – Chang Lih Kang, PKR Member of Parliament for Tanjung Malim, is urging outstation Port Dickson voters to come home and cast their votes as an action of transitional justice.
He stressed that the current prime minister is really old and it’s important to ensure the stability of the regime by facilitating the entry of his successor Anwar Ibrahim into Parliament.
“The previous regime has done wrong so that we should correct it. Anwar Ibrahim was persecuted and the justice has not been done. ”
“Now is the time for all of us to send him back to Parliament, where he is supposed to be.”
Meanwhile, Perak's tourism exco Tan Kar Hing compared Anwar Ibrahim to Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s anti-apartheid revolutionary.
PKR MP for Wangsa Maju Tan Yee Kew pointed out that there are about 30 to 35 percent of Port Dickson voters are outstation. She stressed that these 25,000 votes are important to ensure that Anwar Ibrahim gains a significant majority on polling day on Oct 13.
PAS candidate sleeps in his car at night, between events
10.30am Taman Intan Perdana – PAS candidate Mohd Nazari Mokhtar said he has been sleeping in his car for about four hours a night for the past few days.
“I have been sleeping in my car. I only manage to get some sleep in between programmes.
“But it is not really a problem. What is important is that I managed to meet many voters in areas where people usually gather,” he was reported by the New Straits Times as saying.
He believes that he has shaken hands with 40 percent of the voters in Port Dickson since nomination day on Sept 29.
The rest, he said, he has met during the ceramah.
