Petaling Jaya Utara candidate Tony Pua Kiam Wee has described the 13-day campaign period as ‘tiring’ but was all smiles when he cast his vote at 9.10am at SK Kampung Tunku.

tony pua cast ballot 080308 yow ting fong Arriving at the school located in SS1 Petaling Jaya with his wife, Yow Ting Fong, Pua obligingly posed at the request of photographers.

It was still not too late to shake the hands of local residents as some recognised him and gave him the thumbs up.

After casting his vote, he was asked to comment about how the experience has been which he laughed and answered, "Tiring".

"The response has been encouraging. The only reason why I am able to sustain myself through the past 13 days and keep a smile is the warmth and encouragement from the people."

Pua related that he has been active in the election process in the past the two elections when he was a polling agent in Seputeh which supplements his experience this time around as a candidate.

tony pua cast ballot 080308 tony Asked to speculate the reasons if he lost, the Oxford graduate said it could be due to areas which he was not able to cover sufficiently and the shortcomings in the election strategies employed.

"Our analysis may have not been enough and this would affect our approach and strategies. We would then have to conduct a post- mortem and analyse our strategies of the past six months," he said.

'Sleep for nine hours'

Pua also said that when the results come out tonight and results are in his favour, the first thing he would do is "sleep for nine hours".

Candidly quizzed to estimate how many hands he has shaken, he gave his trademark smile and said it was "definitely in the thousands".

After casting his vote, Pua said he will be going around the area and see if everything is running smoothly.

tony pua cast ballot 080308 shake He is up against two-term PJU incumbent BNl’s Chew Mei Fun who cast her vote in SK Taman Megah around 10am.

The two state seats - Kampung Tunku and Damansara Utama - under PJU see straight fights between DAP and MCA candidates.

The diverse mixed seats consists of 76,618 voters made up of 76.6 per cent Chinese, 15.2 per cent Malay, 7.4 Indian and 0.8 per cent other.

PJU voters will be casting their ballots from 8am to 5pm at 17 polling stations. Heavy traffic was reported in the area.