Raring to go@Galas

Both have also introduced themselves to the voters who will head to 13 polling centres tomorrow.

Kampung Baru polling district has the highest number of electorate with 2,150 and the lowest number of voters is in Belatim with 160.

The other polling centres are Lojing (606), Sungai Ber (411), Balar (232), Bihai (278), Hau (254), Kampung Pulai (471), Bandar Lama Gua Musang (1,562), Bandar Baru Gua Musang (1,185), Kampung Batu Papan (1,739), Lepan Tupai (593) and Sungai Terah (,1912).

Of the 11,553 (including 127 postal voters), Malay voters consist of 7,125, Chinese (2,317), Indian (185), Orang Asli (1,889) and others (37).

There are a combined 25 channels at the polling centres which used 11 schools and a hall and a community centre.

All polling centres would be open from 8am to 5pm except in Bihai, Belatim, Hau and Balar, which close at 1pm.

The Election Cmmission has hired the services of two helicopters and four four-wheel-drive vehicles to tranport ballot boxes from remote polling districts, mostly in Orang Asli settlements.

Helicopters will be used to transport ballot boxes from Bihai, Belatim, Hau and Balar.

According to the Election Commission, 127 police personnel had voted through postal voting on Monday.

The commissio n has issued 177 postal ballot papers as there were 50 commission workers who were engaged in the by-election.

The 50 voted at the Gua Musang Land and District Office operations room on Sunday here.

Election Commission secretary Datuk Noordin Che Ngah had reportedly said that the postal ballots would be counted together with other ballot papers from normal voting after the polling stations closed at 5pm today.

All the postal ballots would be kept in the strong room at the Gua Musang Land and District operations room under tight police security, he had said.

It is expected that the voters turn-out to drop slightly from the 81 per cent , which was recorded in the 2008 general election.

Political analysts have attributed the (anticipated) lower turn-out to the outstation voters who might not be able to get a leave from work to return and vote.

Political parties from BN and Pas have put the figure of the outstation voters between 1,500 and 2,000.

Tomorrow, the weather is forecast to have clear sky in the morning until 3pm and rain in the afternoon.   

In the last 48 hours here, distributions of political leaflets and newsletters by both parties were on the rise.

During the same period, new banners and buntings also popped up, mostly around the old town.

State police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi yesterday gave an assurance that it is safe for the people to go to vote.

He said an adequate number of policemen were stationed at various locations including polling stations to maintain security and public order.

"The people should have no fear to carry out their duties to cast their votes," he said.

However, he said it was anticipated that the traffic volume would increase today but police had taken suitable measures to address any congestion.

He said police had observed that the campaign period had been incident-free except for minor issues which had been put under control.

The Election Commission had designated the Civic Centre as the main venue for centralised tallying of the ballots.

It has also announced that the official by-election result would be known as early as 8pm.

The by-election was held when there was a vacancy of the Galas seat following the death of its assemblyman Che Hashim Sulaima on Sept 27.

In the last general election, Che Hashim, of Pas, defeated BN's candidate Mohd Saufi Deraman with a 646-vote majority.

Che Hashim polled 4,399 against Saufi's 3,753 in the election.

Aidi Amin: From the eyes of a young reporter

For a rookie reporter like me, covering my first by-election has been truly a mentally and physically exhausting process.

Certain things were also not as how I expected.

For one, I had anticipated much more smear campaigning and personal attacks from the contesting parties, especially in their daily ceramah and also in cyber-space.

Also, I expected much more tension and hostility in the air as I had read that the Galas N45 state seat was vital for both the Barisan Nasional and Pas as it was a kind of "warm up" in preparation for the next general election.

BN's Abdul Aziz Yusoff, 49 is in a straight fight for the seat against Dr. Zulkefli Mohamed, 44, from Pas.

I was told by my seniors earlier, that the two prominent figures to look out for would be BN's election director for Galas, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Pas spiritual leader, Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat. Both were better known as Ku Li and Tok Guru respectively.

I was also briefed that both parties were going to adopt a different campaigning strategy this time - much to my dismay, there was not going to be many heated ceramah which I had heard about in past elections. Their approach was going to be more "civil" this time, with focus on house to house visits and meeting the voters on a more personal basis.

I had heard from my colleagues in Pre-Editorial Trainning Scheme (Pets) who had covered the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election that they were under intense pressure to keep tabs on all the leaders and happenings in the constituency.

This time round, I was also told that we would have to constantly contribute to NST Online and that our work was cut out for us, coupled with the fact that the team was much smaller than that sent to Hulu Selangor.

When we arrived in Gua Musang, it seemed like a beautiful place against a backdrop of limestone hills and caves. However, it was also a kind of culture shock for me, having gotten used to the likes of Starbucks, Kenny Rogers and other "hang out" joints in the capital.

I guess I was just being kind of "kiasu" and kept comparing this quiet, laid-back town to the likes of the Klang Valley. Being the proud city-boy that I am, even the insects here freaked me out, looking rather pre-historic compared to those from where I come from. I had the horror of getting stuck with one of these "killer bugs" in the back seat of a car with two of my colleagues several nights ago. However ... I survived to tell the tale!

The people, even the youths in Gua Musang seemed complacent with their pace of life, with many of them telling me that they have worked in bigger towns, but could not take the pace there and decided to return home. I wondered if this was due to the lack of development and progress in the state and also because there was not even a single internet cafe in town.

I recalled reading about the Pygmalion and Rosenthal effects, which is a kind of phenomenon where people only perform according to the expectations placed on them, whereby in this state, the expectations were much lower and thus the complacency and lack of challenges.

The only other excitement during my visit, apart from the election, was the Malaysia Cup hype with the whole town eagerly waiting for the clash between Kelantan and Negri Sembilan in the finals.

Football and sepak takraw seemed like the only games the youth here were interested in.

The Red Warriors, as the Kelantan team was known were kind of idols to the teens here and the excitement on match day, last Saturday was far greater than the by-election.

I was also impressed with the silent cease-fire reached by both the contesting parties that day, as they say football brings us together - there was hardly any talk of the by-election that day as the town was filled with football-related activities and big screens set up around town.

The excitement after Kelantan won the game was immense and it poured over to the next day with Tengku Razaleigh and Kelantan Football Association (KAFA) president, Tan Sri Annuar Musa equating the victory to the kind of change needed here in Galas.

I am a critic of prepared texts at functions, celebrations and political events but on that day I believe Ku Li spoke from his heart when he said he was saddened by the lack of infrastructural development in the constituency.

As time went by and after speaking to more locals over a game of sepak takraw, I realised that being 36-years-old and unemployed in this town was fine. It was hard to digest this and I figured that to understand the reasoning behind this complacency, I needed to meet more locals.

The chance came when I was assigned to focus on writing human interest stories because there were not many issues to be debated during the campaign. In my quest to find the right words, I decided to travel further and meet more locals, many of whom were fluent in Mandarin as they had studied in Chinese kindergartens.