Nomination Day Morning

The crowd were already there when I arrive. Unlike Ijok by-election, this time the Police and SPR allocated different routes for each supporter group. Unlike Ijok too, this time there were no bottle throwing incident as both group were separated by a buffer zone of about 200 meters. By the time I parked a distant away from PAS supporters, loaded my camera, and walked the distance, Doctor Lo'lo' had already entered the nomination hall accompanied by 3 party officials.

Nothing much happened after that as each group of supporters were busy either singing their anthem, or as with PAS supporters, reciting zikir and selawat, with some short ceramahs thrown in between. I began shooting and moving through the crowd of about 500 men, women and children; rather small to my liking but I later learned many more were in Putrajaya in show of support to the Persuruhjaya PAS Wilayah Persekutuan nomination there.

In between shots, the reporters from various agencies mingle with each other and so did I. And from that angle, away from the PAS supporters, I spotted a suspicious looking man dressed as any undercover cop would, what with leather shoes, tucked out short sleeve, and neat short hair, he probably was one of the several local Special Branch officers on duty. But I did not like the way he was smiling while taking pictures of the crowd with his cellular phone, and informed an AMAL volunteer to keep an eye on him. If any trouble were to brew up, it most certainly will begin with this guy.

At 10am, the SPR Manager announced the closing of the nomination hours and it was time objection time for all parties concerned. The previous day and before fear of having all PAS, PKR and DAP candidates papers rejected on technicalities had died down as each party worked hard to have the papers duty-stamped in accordance to SPR's issuance at 3pm on Thursday. There were suspicion that SPR had purposely delayed the announcement on that day so as to give opposition candidates little time to comply. The suspicion was further strengthened when several BN candidates had their papers objected to on the same ground, but SPR declined the objection saying that it had since been rescinded!

At the Nomination Hall in Taman Maluri, apart from the matter above, Doctor Lo'lo' and her party raised 2 different objections:
1. PAS officials were prevented from fully scrutinising the papers of the opposite number, and
2. The opposite number had used what looked very much like a cheque to pay the election deposit (Dr Lo'Lo' had paid in cash).
But all the objections were turned down by SPR even though PAS officials questioned the validity of the cheque itself especially. Doctor Lo'lo's statement was recorded and may be viewed later at webtv8.

The incident above was not isolated to Taman Maluri alone, but almost throughout the country with SPR continuously covering the arse of the ruling party. Where, I ask you, is the fairness and impartiality of SPR?

UPDATE 8.13pm: The ruling which SPR wanted to enforce above and later rescinded quietly at the last minute was also reported by MalaysiaKini and made available at The Kuala Lumpur Traveler.