JOHOR BARU – The polling stations in Johor have opened at 8am and voters are already trickling in to cast their ballots.
The Vibes visited two polling centres in the Perling constituency.
At 8am, the polling centre at Sekolah Agama Al-Itqan Taman Bukit Indah already had a crowd, with lines spilling outside the school.
The Election Commission (EC) personnel were at the ready to guide voters into the polling booths.
The majority amongst them lining up were mainly Chinese voters with a sprinkling of what appears to be youth voters.
The process appeared to have gone smoothly with voters taking only 20 minutes from lining up to casting their ballots.
Meanwhile, in SMK Aminuddin Baki in Johor Baru’s city centre, the atmosphere appears a little more sombre.
There were no long lines with single voters coming into the polling centre every few minutes.
Most of the voters here appear to be senior citizens.
Muda’s Larkin candidate Rasid Abu Bakar arrived at the SMK Aminuddin Baki centre and told the press that the school was his alma mater.
He added that the voting process here went smoothly, further commenting that the voter turnout appears good given it was still early in the morning.
“I went to the secondary school here and in fact, next door is where I did my STPM, so it brings back many memories.
“I hope that the voter turnout turns out good at the end of the day.
“I urge Malaysians and Johoreans to really take this opportunity to exercise their democratic rights to choose the government that administers Johor for the next term,” Rasid said.
The Muda candidate explained that although he is contesting in Larkin, he cast his ballot in the Perling constituency.
He explained that Larkin is actually a new constituency and was previously called Tanjung Puteri, with the SMK Aminuddin Baki school falling within the Tg Puteri area before.
Meanwhile, on Covid-19 positive voters not being able to cast their ballots today, Rasid labelled the situation as a failure of the system.
“The system did not allow these Covid-19 positive voters to exercise their rights.
“The ability to exercise one’s rights in Malaysia has always been a problem and this is an example of it.
“Although this is happening, the people are voicing out. In the future, I hope EC reconsiders this,” Rasid added.
Polling stations in Johor opened at 8am today and will close at 6pm.
The Johor election will see the usual Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) competing.
But voters will also see new entrants such as Pejuang, Muda, Parti Bangsa Malaysia, as well as Warisan which is contesting in Peninsular Malaysia for the first time. – The Vibes, March 12, 2022
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