BAGAN Pinang initially awakened to light thunder and a drizzle on 11 Oct 2009; the kind of Sunday morning that is made for sleeping in. But today is polling day, the culmination of a week of bizarre and occasionally sluggish campaigning by both the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR). It is a tense [...]

PORT DICKSON, 11 Oct 2009: The Election Commission (EC) has refuted claims that the Army Basic Training Centre here did not use the voters’ list issued by the commission during the postal voting for the Bagan Pinang by-election on Thursday. State EC director Abdul Latif Baba said the voters’ list displayed by armed forces at [...]

PORT DICKSON, 11 Oct 2009: Balloting for the Bagan Pinang by-election began as soon as polling centres opened at 8am. Most of the 13,664 voters, not including the 4,604 postal voters that had been cast earlier, were expected to vote early. They will be choosing a new state assemblyperson for the state seat which became [...]

Worshippers at Masjid Qariah MASJID Qariah Bagan Pinang, Port Dickson, is sandwiched between a major Barisan Nasional (BN) operations centre and PAS’s main by-election headquarters along Jalan Pantai. On Friday, 9 Oct 2009, the mosque was bursting at the seams with worshippers. In his khutbah, the imam said Islam is a religion of unity and [...]

Strange (and dishonest) BN math THERE is a ubiquitous campaign billboard in Port Dickson now. It says, “For 63 years, Barisan Nasional (BN) has protected you. Don’t destroy the country’s security.” The arithmetic is baffling. The BN was officially registered as a coalition in July 1974. As at October 2009, this would make the BN [...]

Bread and butter issues (© Bruno Neves / sxc.hu) “IN Malaysia, we must vote for Barisan Nasional (BN); we have been voting for them for a long time,” says T Muniandy. “We help them by voting for them, and then they help us.” It is 6 Oct 2009, the fourth day of the Bagan Pinang [...]