PETALING JAYA: Rajamah Suban, 77, was one of the first early voters in Taman Medan to cast her vote at SK Taman Medan here on Saturday (Aug 12) morning.
Accompanied by her son Thinagaren Gopal, 36,
Rajamah, who was in a wheelchair, was given priority to cast her vote in her stream.
“My mother insists on voting and has been doing so for decades,” said Thinagaren.
“She believes that there are some things that are a necessity in life, and voting is one of them.”
Sisters Yamuna, 26, and Saranya Manimaran, 27, were also “pushed” to vote by their mother.
The girls and their mother, Satiabama Subramaniam, 50, all voted in the same centre.
“My mother insisted that I come and vote, and after doing so, I feel good,” said Yamuna.
“I am here so that my new assemblyman will keep his pledge about improving infrastructure here in Taman Medan,” said Rakion Kiman, 65.
“This place needs some major improvements on its roads.
“The roadside stalls are also a big issue here,” said Ahmad Din, 45.
“Everywhere you can see roadside traders taking up walking paths, bus stops and it’s getting out of hand,” Ahmad said, adding that he hopes the new assemblyman would look into it.
Rajamah and the rest were part of the thousands of residents who came out as early as 7am to vote for their candidates of choice in this Malay majority seat in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Roads leading to the 16 polling centres in the township saw a long, but steady moving queue of people waiting in line to cast their votes for the one they hoped to be their assemblyman.
Volunteer EC supervisor Hakimi Saidin, 48, said there was a 10% increase in Undi18 voters in the centre.
“But overall there is an increase of about 17,000 voters this time around.
Based on the latest data by EC, there are about 61,959 registered voters in the Taman Medan seat.
Pakatan Harapan’s Ahmad Akhir Pawan Chik is locking horns with Perikatan Nasional’s Dr Afif Bahardin.
In the 2018 General Election, Syamsul Firdaus Mohamed Supri of Pakatan won the seat by obtaining 21, 712 votes in a three-way fight.
He beat Abdul Mutalif Abdul Rahim from Barisan Nasional who polled 10,772 votes and Ariffin Mahaiyuddin from PAS who got 5,090 votes.
