WITH only hours to go before PKR members in Sarawak start casting their votes, some divisions reportedly have yet to confirm where their polling stations would be.

A source familiar with the organisation of the party election told The Malaysian Insight that as late as at 4pm today, thousand of members across the state have yet to be told where they should go tomorrow to cast their vote because state election coordinators could not find a suitable venue for them.

The party’s central election committee furnished the Sarawak media with a list of polling centres around 5.30pm today but polling stations for six urban divisions – Santubong, Stampin, Mambong, Sarikei, Sibu and Sri Aman – are not on the list.

“We’re swamped with enquiries. It’s chaos,” the source said as he accused little Napoleons in the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) of messing up agreed arrangement like renting of village community halls.

“It’s like the proverbial ‘throwing the spanner in the works’.”

“We don’t believe it’s a general GPS policy but those party chiefs in the villages and rural towns are giving us a headache.”

The source said the abrupt cancellations of some confirmed venue and the inability to find an alternative quickly was the root cause in the delay in informing the members.

He gave the experience of the Batang Sadong division as an example where GPS grassroots leaders in that rural town of Simunjan, some 89km from Kuching, cancelled a booking made two weeks ago at the eleventh hour.

“Five days ago, they came to us and told us we could not use the town hall as a polling station.”

He said after a futile effort to find a suitable alternative site, they fell on their last resort by pitching “a large tent” in the compound of a party member’s house and turned that into a polling station.

The Stampin division faced a different problem.

The state election coordinator reportedly picked the party’s headquarters at the 3rd Mile Maong bazaar for members from the Stampin and Bandar Kuching divisions, totalling around 1,300, to cast their votes there.

“It suddenly dawned to him a few days ago that they could not pack that many voters in the office on the second floor of a pre-war shophouse that is also being used as a tallying centre,” the source said.

“The office is just too small to handle 1,300 people.”

There reportedly was an attempt to rent the hall of the Society for the Blind at Jalan Ong Tiang Swee a couple of kilometres from the PKR Sarawak headquarters, as the Stampin division polling centre.

The source also blamed “idiots in Kuala Lumpur” for the mess.

He said switching the polling from one day to two was another reason why some divisions could not find a station quick enough.

“Sitting pretty in their ivory tower with no knowledge of Sarawak, they make decisions without consultation us in Sarawak.

“Don’t they know at this time of the year, most halls are fully booked as its the wedding season.”

The central election committee decided only three days ago to switch the last leg of the party polling from one day to two.

PKR members from 22 of the 29 divisions in Sarawak, including from the controversial Julau division, will cast their votes tomorrow.

The other seven divisions – Bandar Kuching, Santubong, Stampin, Mambong, Sarikei, Sibu and Sri Aman – cast their vote on Sunday. – November 9, 2018.