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Being a registered voter in my hometown (which is a mere 30 minutes from my current location), I took the weekend opportunity to see for myself the happenings at the nomination centre. The nomination for parliament seat P110 (Klang) and its 3 state seats (Port Klang N46, Pandaraman N47, and Kota Alam Shah N48) was held at Dewan Hamzah. I got an SMS from a friend saying the supporters for Manoharan will be marching from Chetty Padang (field) instead of Lecthumanan Hall as mentioned a day earlier. Anyway, I reached Dewan Hamzah at about 9.15am, by which the candidates were already in the nomination centre. The police had closed some of the roads, so I had some problem finding parking. Managed to park behind the Dewan and walked up the stairs.

I was greeted with the sight of the Barisan camp first. There were scores of UMNO supporters, with some Gerakan supporters as well. Small number of MCA, MIC and PPP shirts could be seen.

What surprised me was that most of the supporters looked like schoolchildren. I suppose the have some of the BN supporters clubs in schools and colleges nowadays.

The opposition camp were showing DAP, PKR and PAS flags – with slightly more Indians as compared with other races. The police had barricaded the area in front of the Dewan’s entrance, separating the BN crowd from the opposition crowd by about 40 metres or so. The BN area was quite strategic as it is well shaded by trees, while the opposition were placed in the open. Luckily, the weather was quite cloudy and the sun showed its strength occasionally only.

Until about 10am, the crowd was involved in some good-hearted banter, exchanging slogans and songs – shouting at each other in a jovial manner. Most people were being entertained by the antics, especially from the more energetic opposition side. Cars that passed by honked in support. The BN side were more quiet. The Chinese from Gerakan were more concerned about standing in the shade, rather than showing support for their candidates.

There were banners on HINDRAF at the opposition side, but the police asked them to be removed. By 10am, the crowd at BN side numbered about 500 to 600 people, while there were slight less on the opposition side, probably about 400. It was harder to estimate the crowd on BN side since they were standing near the tree and some were loitering around.

At 10am, the officer announced that nomination has been closed and that the papers will be displayed for any objections until 11am. The crowd continued with more vocal exchanges, the opposition being more creative and stronger in their words. The BN camp were kind of disinterested. Word going around was that the “imported” supporters for BN were given token amount of between RM50 and RM100 for expenses incurred. My friend told me that two buses of youths were brought in at about 8am. He said they were from some colleges, but I could not verify it. From the photos, you can see how young these supporters are – with t-shirts, flags and all.

At 11am, the officer announced that for some candidacy there were no objections, while objection received for others were rejected. Thus there will be a straight fight between Gerakan and DAP for Klang parliament seat, while 3-cornered fight for Port Klang state seat. The most anticipated nomination was for ISA detainee Manoharan. The crowd cheered when his nomination was confirmed. My source said that his application for nomination was cleared by Internal Security Ministry the day before only, thus it was still not clear if he would be nominated until Saturday evening. By this time, there were more BN supporters present. I think as it was near to the announcement time, the crowd had coming. There were roughly 700-800 people there, while there were roughly 500-600 people in the opposition.

The candidates came out to greet their supporters. I saw Ronnie Liu, Charles Santiago, and Manoharan’s wife – Ms Pushpa. They gave short speeches. Ms Pushpa was overwhelmed with emotion and cried as she talked about her husband who is held in detention. She hopes to get the support and help of everyone in the coming election.

I went over to BN side and took some photos of the Gerakan candidates posing with MIC, PPP and other component parties.

The list of candidates are:

P110 Parliment seat:

Ch’ng Tong Eng (MCA)

Charles Santiago (DAP)

N46 Port Klang:

Nasir Mansor (independent)

Roselina Jamil (UMNO)

Badrul Hisham Abdullah (PKR)

N47 Pandamaran:

(Ronnie) Liu Tian Khiew (DAP)

Teh Kim Poo (MCA)

N48 Kota Alam Shah:

Manoharan Malayalam (DAP)

Ching Su Chen (Gerakan)

I left at about 11.50am after having witnessed my first ever election candidate nomination day!

My view is that the BN people were less enthusiastic and not cohesive. They only cheered when the candidates come out. They were interested with taking photos with the candidates. The opposition crowd (mainly Indians) were definitely more energetic and vocal. However, I think some of the slogans and words used was improper, and may actually backfire on the opposition. For example, they should not be shouting about SV dying or Vel Paari’s involvement in Sujatha’s death. It would have been better if the used English or Malay words so that the others could join in as well.

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