memoirs of an electoral virgin

i woke up last saturday hearing my mum humming the election song.

what an unusual morning.

indeed it was. i have never voted before. i don't think i've even cared much about it up till now so i was suprised how excited i was to this whole process of democracy.

although it might not be pure democracy considering all tricks and lies in this whole election system.

nevertheless, i still got butterfly in my tummy, which i know was a bit silly. i mean it was just one tiny vote! still i couldn't help felt a bit anxious, like we were up on a mission or something.

walking out on that fine sunny saturday morning, i found the town has been embraced in colourful shades of blue, red and green. i had just arrived in KL the night before so everything was a pleasant suprise.

they truly painted the town, well, in many colours. i wondered where these people got all those flags from? had i not worry that my car got scratched or being thrown something in protest if i showed my party preference, i would have stolen some of those.

for my region, it was BN vs PKR for Parlimentary seat, and BN vs PAS for State seat.

it was not all face-punching and stone throwing between these parties though, like this boy and this lady who could exist side by side in peace.

inspiring.

there were masquarades of 'vote beggers' , as what i called them, along the road heading towards the voting stations.

you could tell which party people were rooting for by a mere glance of how they treated these horn-blowers. the supporters normally would stopped by for a chat or just smiled and waved. cars would lowered their windows or hit their horns. non-supporters would just walked passed by, often with a roll on their eyes.

it was all very lively, like there was a massive family day or something.

seriously they should do this more often. i mean, this is the time you noticed your neighbours. although in seconds later chances are you gonna see some of them walking towards the wrong party booth and that changed your whole perception of them =)

this kind of temporary party-specific booths were erected for us to confirm our registration and check our voting station.

which i think kinda redundant since you can just proceed to SPR booth to do that.

but apparently if they found that you've been removed to another voting station (like what happened to this uncle when we were there), they could drive you there for free.

talk about sweetening ppl up huh =p

this is my voting slip, specially prepared by the voting parties. it tells us who the contestants are, where to cast our votes etc etc. each of us got 2, one from BN and one from PKR/PAS. my dad tore away the BN slips the moment they were given, so i was only left with this :) ...not that i'm complaining.

while i was busy checking my name in the registration list using above slip, my dad grabbed this pole and started waving the flag.

well.. that's my dad!

then we proceeded to our voting station. it was at this islamic primary school, which were surrounded by yellow SPR tape indicating region inside was off-bound to any campaigning.

and for me, the region where i wasn't allowed to shoot any photo. damn!

so i had voted. i had done my part. i had voiced my opinion. it felt great. i know whatever the result would be, at least i had done something.

man i should vote more often haha...

there were lots of this kind of poster-filled cars roaming the roads. i heard that the drivers were paid to go around the neighbourhood for the whole day.

that just showed money can do anything for you.

you know, just before the election day the ruling party improved our neighbourhood roads too, as last minute vote-caller attempt.


you'd think we'd be happy but just look underneath the lorry. they just skipped that road portion because the lorry was there.

don't you think the scene below is an eye-sore? i believe a car parked there the day they did the road works.

not to mention all those bumpers that they didn't even bother to repaint, causing unsuspected non-neighbourhood-familiar driver like me to unsuspectedly bumped into and started swearing.

all i can say is, what a half-hearted figure.

lastly, here are some of the interesting banners i found along the way.

enjoy!

...ed (no longer an electoral virgin haha)