When volunteers were made redundant...

sounds like an oxymoron.

It was all because of the change in rule from counting Parliament and State votes consecutively to concurrently and back to consecutively! Imagine having to double the number of agents which Po Kuan estimated at 250 and then half of them with nothing to do!

By Thursday, 2 days before Election Day on March 8, I had to confirm what was the arrangement DAP had made for volunteers. The Election Commission’s flip-flopping rules continued until vote-counting causing confusion to those who volunteered.

As I had to be out of town on Friday, I needed to know whether it was necessary for me to be around, and if so, when. A promise is a promise, even though it means little to others. I called Po Kuan’s assistant and she did not take the call, as expected during such a time just before election day. I happened to be in Pusing, so I went to see the branch leader. He asked for my particulars and contact number and promised to get in touch with the candidate for state seat of Tronoh, Sivakumar. I was told that since I had experience, I need not attend the briefing. Yet, later, Ms Kong called me to confirm that I had to be there to sign the form.

It was typical Pusing briefing with instructions given in Hakka dialect. An Indian young man listening was conversing with some Chinese and spoke like a Hakka which can put me to shame. Anyway, we were told to be early at the respective centres at 7.30am, to collect the necessary letters of authority for agents.

On Election Day, I walked to SMK Sultan Yussuf. At the DAP tent, there were a few Indians wearing party T-shirts and presumably Siva’s helpers (can’t help racial profiling). I was told he would be coming.

Not really knowing the arrangement between Siva and Po Kuan, I was wondering why I was the only one representing her. They were sorting out the letters and there was none for me. By the time Siva’s assistant Bala arrived, he called out to me by a different name, which obviously I ignored. It turned out he was calling out the name of Po Kuan’s representative on top of the form instead of my name below it. By the time I got to the classrooms, all the seats for DAP (one in each classroom) were already taken up by Siva’s men. I was actually redundant from the start!

Well, with a strong sense of responsibility, I was not about to leave yet. I took the opportunity to vote and I hanged around and even called my wife to inform her that she should come because there were no queues yet. Soon, a policeman approached me asking what I was doing there. I asked him, ‘What is your problem?’ It seems we should not be loitering around which was understandable as I could be canvassing for votes. Anyway, I went out to wait at the tent.

There were a few cases of people checking and being told that their names were not on the list. One actually said he was not going to check out at the other centres. One even refused to go in with the wife because he thought it was troublesome! I couldn’t resist in telling him that it was simple and there were no queues. Imagine people coming all the way from other states and we have people who could be so easily put off.

The ignorance of some voters never failed to tickle me. It seems there was one voter who went in and came out asking, “Why there was no ‘X’ on the ballot papers?” He was shown earlier an example of a voting slip with a pre-marked ‘X’!

After a couple of hours, I asked Murugan why there were none from Po Kuan’s side, except me. He was a bit embarrassed and he called Bala to arrange for me to take over from one of their men. Bala actually suggested that I go to a Tamil school instead! I said I specifically asked to be on duty at SYS, which is within walking distance and I was prepared to work the whole day. I was prepared to work through lunchtime (already overweight) with some biscuits for just in case.

Sometimes, one has to put the foot down where there was a lack of coordination on the part of organisers. I was fuming when Murugan actually used a pen to rule off the part where I could be a counting agent too. This was the reason why I decided to give way to the two ladies later even though the presiding officer did not take note of it.

In the afternoon, Po Kuan and her husband came with a few party members. She checked with the presiding officer and looked at the voting slip booklets and counterfoils probably to find out roughly the number of voters who came.

As soon as time was up (5pm), the presiding officer showed us the time according to his watch, before he closed the doors. Soon after there was a knock and a Chinese lady came in saying that she was to be present during the counting of votes. I asked and she said she was from DAP, already briefed as to what to do. Then another lady came in, also expecting to be present. There was confusion as to how many could be present. I read in the papers that the counting of votes for both Parliamentary and State will be done concurrently which was why there was a panic to get double the number of agents for counting purposes. The presiding officer had to call the Chief for clarification and it was confirmed. Noting the eagerness of the two ladies, I offered to leave for them to take over. I even told the BN agent that she had better join in since we had two in there. The poor girl was supposed to leave for work at a noodles stall straight after her stint at the polling station.

To add to the confusion, there were a handful of Siva’s men asking why they were asked to come but nothing to do! Again, the other 4 classrooms had only one from each side like before because counting was to be done consecutively ie. Parliament, then State!

I wish there were no flip-flops in the rules because giving instructions to a large group of people with different levels of understanding of the rules, in different locations was already difficult. Added to this, the prevailing mutual suspicions and we were bound to have some misunderstanding. With the experienced EC Chairman in charge, one cannot help but wonder if flip-flops were deliberate to confuse some people. One thing I am sure was that it was unacceptable why some were transferred to vote a distance away from the last time when there was no change in address. I still remember a newsagent telling me her sister or brother was transferred to Sabah!