Too Close to Call - Manek Urai (Updated)

Conflicting reports are coming in. Some say PAS won by 70 votes and some say 200 votes. Amd there are some who is saying BN won by 36 votes.

There is confusion in the counting and unofficial results. Hold your horses, don't jump to conclusion wait for the official results.

Rumours are flying around.

UPDATE

8pm Unofficial results PAS won by 65 votes and recount expected (from Mkini)

8.30 pm Unofficial - PAS 5347 votes UMNO 5283 votes PAS majority of 64 votes

Final Official Results UMNO 5283 PAS 5348 wins by majority of 65 votes

Higher Voter Turnout - Manek Urai

This is beyond expectation for a working Tuesday. Unbelievable!

There is a higher than expected voter turnout reported to be at 84% as at 3 pm. and estimated to be about 10,325 voters that already casted their sacred vote.

The total voters for the March 2008 election in Manek Urai was at 82.5% with 10140 votes casted.

Total registered voters are 12293 which is the same electoral roll for the 2008 general election.

The turnout should be well over 85% come 5pm.

UPDATE

The Election Commission announced that as at 4pm 86.5% or 10,626 have voted.

Polling closes at 5pm with a record voters turnout. (awaiting final numbers from EC)
PAS claims victory of more than 2000 majority votes based on exit polls.

Final voters count is a record of 87.3% or 10,736 at end of polling for Manek Urai.
In 2008 voters was at 82.5% and in 2004 about 82% of voters turnout. Will be interesting to see how the votes are being translated.




For LIVE update go HERE

It Sure Took A Long Long Time

It sure took a long time to come to this, it has taken 100 days to find out that we need crime prevention and that we need to fight corruption and etc with no details or plans on how to achieve this and as though like it is a new discovery.

But first, change the language and back to bahasa for maths and science (after spending years and millions of ringgit) at least until the next PM comes along and maybe we should have new language or elective language. Is BN all about the PMs, out goes the all talk only sleepy head and in come another all talk and more talk new Prime Minister and his talk are decorated with celebrations and event launches like some kind of new anti dandruff shampoo.

100 days goodies? The poor and lower income people don’t use Smart Tag or Touch and Go and to use it for 80 times so that they will qualify for a 20% discount? You guys are expert in making things complex don’t you? Who are your advisers? Mr. PM, you better sack them all and get new ones.
Sale of low cost houses a big deal, and through all these years we are still struggling with this topic of low cost housing? Just give them the houses in lieu of rental lah and stop making all this fuss as you don’t have enough low cost houses to go around for all the low income people.
Taxi permits? You mean from the time of the sleepy head until now you guys are still trying to give out these permits, go talk to the taxi drivers yourself and hear what they have to say about getting your permits, those that I have spoken to condemns it and says that there are too many conditions that they can’t meet and some says that they need political recommendations from BN.
Reducing cost to obtain motorcycle license to RM 211? Come on… just give it to the poor for free or at a token fee, RM211 is a lot of money to the poor and lower income earner.
Most of these goodies so announced are things to be done in the norm, like birth registration and citizenship applications, are all these things something new or what? Fighting crime and corruption and alleviating the hardship of the people are one of the priorities of the government and up till today we still don’t have any detail action plan other than just making an announcement on the subject. To be truthful in fighting corruption the Malaysia Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) must be made fully independent and seen to be independent and sad to say at this point in time this does not seem to be the case. And yes it was a good timing to announce the fight on corruption at the same time a former state Mentri Besar blatantly flaunt his wealth to the Malaysian public by building a purportedly 20 or 30 million ringgit palace for himself and yet the authorities pretends not to know of this and are turning their head the other way.

Good Work Khir! When is the open house?

The 1Malaysia comes with a slogan that reads “Justice for All” and after reading all the multiple pages of hype by all the government controlled media it still does not say much and you can’t help but think that there were 2 or 3 or more different type of Malaysia in the past?

The people never had any problem on unity, we, the people gets along well and fine and recognizes that there is only one universal race on this planet and that is the Human Race (says Michael Jackson) and it is the politicians who is trying to create all the mistrust and are propagating disunity and thinks that they can control the people and hold on to power through the old political adage of “divide and rule” (also said by Michael Jackson).

If the slogan “Justice for All” is true and sincere than give the country and the people real justice and democracy by clear separation of powers of the judiciary and that judges are independently appointed and not put in place by the PM and politicians, and all top post like the IGP (Inspector General of Police), as it is today BN has shown to have already seizes power and controls all the functions of democracy and has turned this nation into an Authoritarian state.

The people are not fools and stupid and could easily see through all the smart talks and insincerity, even the people of Manek Urai a sleepy hollow, can tell us this when we were there and don’t think that fishmongers and rubber tappers don’t care or are ignorant and are oblivious to all your doings and be fooled by your empty promises, you should really hear them out and not for them to hear you talk, talk, talk and talk.

To Muhyiddin, the people of Manek Urai says thank you and you can keep your bridge, who do you think we are? Donkeys? (This is a form of bribery)

Come this Tuesday, the people of Manek Urai will speak for the nation and tell you what they think of your dirty and manipulative politics.

The Preservation of Democracy and the Rule of Law

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim was invited to speak by the Oxford Society of Malaysia and he delivered an interesting view of the state of democracy in this nation. Read on below;

This country was established as a secular multicultural and multi-religious democracy ala the Westminster model. The Constitution however provides for a special position for the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak. They unfortunately omitted to include the Orang Asli in this special category, although they were naturally the first original inhabitants of this country. All they got was a Jabatan Orang Asli. The special provisions for Bumiputras under Article 153 do not make them more special than other citizens, for the fighters of independence did not envisage an Orwellian society where some are more equal than others. The acceptance of equality of rights as citizens is central to the success of our Malaysian journey.

Polling Date of July14th is Bias - Manek Urai

The polling date for Manek Urai fixed on July 14th which falls on a Tuesday, a working day for the people is unfair and unjust and a reflection that the Election Commission is controlled by UMNO.

Why is the polling date fixed on a working day and not on a weekend and it is obvious that most of the young voters in Manek Urai are working out of the district and will be greatly inconvenient and most who works further away like in Selangor or Johor will not be able to make all the travel home to cast their vote. If one is working from KL and need to return to Manek Urai to vote, the person will need to at least apply for a minimum of three days leave from work.

Is this the tactics applied to inconvenient the voters so that they can't make it back to vote? This seems to be the pattern with the election commission on choosing a polling date as is the same for the past few by elections. This is a blatant disregard and concern for the voters of this nation.

The commission must be independent and seen to be independent and not take to any hint or instructions from umno, and this is also the case with most or all of the institution of this country acting as an extension of umno effectively degrading and eroding the foundation and structures of our democracies.

It is estimated that about 45% of the voters here are young people who works out of the district and are well spread into the more industrialised state of Penang, Selangor and Johor and are mostly sympathetic with the Pakatan Rakyat alliance and most will not be able to make the trip back to cast their vote. This election shall reveal whether Pakatan has managed to win over and convert the traditional voters of umno and can the children of these older voters successfully influence the choice of their parents as they could not take too many days off in these times of economic recession.

The Manek Urai by election on this coming tuesday, 14th July 2009 shall reveal whether Pakatan Rakyat has managed to win over the support of the old voters traditionally more inclined towards umno.

Zaid Ibrahim First Campaign Speech For Pakatan Rakyat

Zaid Ibrahim hits the campaign trial in Manek Urai for Pakatan Rakyat and expounded on the many wrong doings of UMNO as having a monopoly control of all the media like TV broadcast, newsprint media and radio, the use of the Official Secret Acts (OSA) to protect the corrupt. Control of the judiciary and allowing corrupt pratices at high levels in the police.

He further stressed on the oil royalty that is owing to the people of Kelantan in excess of billions of ringgit and umno's silence on this royalty payment.

Must see the video below;

Snapshots from the Manek Urai Election

An award winning Roti Canai shop which is located in the main town of Kuala Krai and is about 10km away to the Manek Urai district and a must stop location when making your way there.

These helicopters which ferried in the umno bigshots and one was carrying Muhyiddin the Deputy Prime Minister to the nomination center in Kuala Krai while the people and opposition are caught in traffic jams and have to walk quite a distance on nomination day.

The grandiose Barisan National operation center in Manek Urai with tents and buildings that are fully air conditioned and equip with the latest and best of equipment and furniture for the comfort of umno members, umno is all about luxury and comfort and must have cost millions to set up and take note of the fully pack car parks which looks like a posh car showroom that comes with tents to protect their luxury cars from the sun. What a distinct difference from the PAS operation center at the old shophouse with just basic furniture and a couple of old stand fans, and in there you can see supporters sleeping or resting on mats placed on the bare cement floors.

The whisperer is curious of this container in the compound of the operation center that has labels that says 1Malaysia and he insist on stopping the car for this photo, hmm wonder whats inside... maybe there is 1 Malaysian in there.

This is not your everyday police pondok, we were not allowed in to the compound so the shots you see are all taken from outside the perimeter of this huge area with tents and huge factory like buildings and we saw four big factory buildings and some are of double volumes and one look like up to 3 storey high. You can never be able to comprehend all this trouble and expense of millions of ringgits just for a small state by election with 12,293 voters.

All the buildings and tents are fully covered and are big enough to house jets and nuclear missiles, this compound looks intimidating and are fully guarded with armed police and guards. My estimate of the size of this area is easily over 30 acres of land.Some of the locals say that Manek Urai has some 5000 fully armed personnel and even at 2100 uniformed personnel as reported by the press it is still a big number for this sparsely populated district consisting of planters and farmers with numerous kampongs deep into the woods but why all this buildings and there is already quite a big police station in the district.

Can never really understand all this huge temporary facility just for eight days from nomination to election and must have cost the government millions of ringgit. This is mind boggling!