SEREMBAN: The discipline of the supporters of the political parties on the polling day today was not satisfactory, said Election Commission (EC) chairman Azhar Azizan Harun.
He said this was because there were still several tents which were set up near the voting centre.
‘’The by-election was progressing smoothly (as of 11.30 am), I have visited three polling centres but the discipline of the candidates and political parties are a bit dissatisfactory as tents have been set up.
‘’There were two tents at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Bandar Seri Sendayan but only one belonging to Pakatan Harapan (PH) was operational.
‘’They did stop for 15 minutes when I personally ordered them to do so but were back in business at the 16th minute. I had to give a second warning for them to cease. However, they were back at it again using their cellphones to check,’’ he told a media conference here today.
He said this when asked to comment on the setting up of stalls around the polling centre to check the channels of voters.
As of 11 am, Azhar Azizan said 38 per cent of voters had cast their votes.
‘’I think it is satisfactory if 38 per cent have already voted in three hours. We still six-and-a-half-hours. If another 38 per cent comes out to vote, we would already have 76 per cent. I dare not say but, if following the trend and in terms of logic, could get 70 per cent by 5.30 pm,’’ he said.
He said no untoward incident such as chaos or fights had taken place to date.
‘’We do not want any fracas to take place. If we ask them to stop but they still insist, we will use the soft approach by recording the incident, for the purpose of lodging a police report later.
The Rantau state seat by-election saw a four-corner between PH candidate Dr S Streram, Barisan Nasional candidate, former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and two independent candidates, namely, housewife R Malarvizhi and former lecturer Mohd Nor Yassin. – Bernama
