A lot of attention was given to the just concluded by-election at Permatang Pauh constituency.
Many Malaysians take it as a start of things to come, for a new Malaysia where better racial harmony, more transparency, less corruption and improved judicial system, are anticipated.
The end result is DSAI won with a majority of 15671 votes over the BN candidate. It is a big enough margin for the BN government to revise their approach in the governance of Malaysia and the anticipations of all Malaysians? Let’s hope so.
However, there were interesting reports online, right from the close of poll to the final results announced at around 21:47 hours whereby Anwar – 31,195 votes; Arif – 15,524 votes and Hanafi – 92 votes (total – 46,811), giving Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim a majority of 15,671 votes.
The total turnout was 81.01% (NST quoted), there was no mention on the number of spoilt votes. If the 81.01% can be taken as correct, then the total number of 58,459 registered voters will give us a number of 47,358 voters that turned out to vote on 26th Augusted 2008 at Permatang Pauh and the spoilt votes would be 547 votes.
Many of us were interested to know the result, earliest possible and yours truly included.
6.40pm – As quoted through NST online, an official from the election commission announced that the turnout is about 63%, meaning only about 35,829 voters turned out to vote. Just an estimate, I believe, quite easily done as there are only 28 voting centers and I believe the numbers are already tallied and a glance can possibly give you a rough estimate across the board, if the figures showed every number from each center is in the sixties percentage.
8.00 to 9.00pm – My wife called and told me that over TV3, evening news, it was announced that Anwar had garnered more than 29K votes, while Arif obtained 14,444 votes (remembered this clearly, as someone commented on the not so nice sounding of four in Chinese). This was already unassailable at that point.
8.32pm – Malaysiakini unofficially reported, Anwar – 31,949 votes; Arif – 14,297 votes and Hanafi – 74 votes.
In summary:
6:40pm – Election commission - Turnout 63% - 35,829 votes
8.10pm – TV3 – Anwar (29000 +, - 1K); Arif (14444) - 43,444 (+ or – 1,000) votes counted
8.32pm – Malaysiakini (unofficial) – Anwar (31949); Arif (14297) Hanafi (74) - about 46,320 votes counted.
10.35pm – NST – final result – Anwar (31195); Arif (15524); Hanafi (92) & 81.01% turnout = 47,358 votes.
Throughout the evening right until the final result was announced, every follower of the election result would be under the impression that the turnout was between 65 to 63 percent. It was certainly a surprise that the final result turned out this way. 81.01 percent!
Are we forgetting something? Could it be the postal votes factor or the online reporting had not been accurate.
But from the flow of results, I believe the majority could have been slightly higher but not that much to show it to be more dramatic. To the gamblers who bet on the difference, this could be win or lose and large sum could change hands, poor buggers!
But if the initial quote of 60 to 65% were to be correct, also mentioned by the election commission as quoted by NST at 6.40pm on election day, than the implication is significant. There are about 8,800 votes that are not caste on the same day. The main-stream-media had since withdrawn all the sixties odd percentage from their online news portal.
The lesson to learn from this is: it is never easy to cover live events if it is necessary to cover up some of the truth.
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