IF the number of voters who came in yellow T-shirts with the face of Julau MP Larry Sng stamped in front is translated into votes, Sng will win the contest for the chairmanship of this controversial PKR division by a massive landslide.

There seemed that no one turned up without a yellow T-shirt that bore the words “Calon Ketua Cabang” above the picture of Sng and “Calon MPP” and a big number 11 on the reverse, denoting that Sng is the eleventh candidate in the contest for a spot on the national leadership council.

Voting in this most talked-about division, where the membership suddenly rocketed to over 13,000 in a day in July from the previous 600, began at 9.47am. Voting will close at 4.47pm to comply with the 7-hour voting time rule.

As anticipated, the poor Internet service in this largely rural farming community, 58km from Sibu, meant voting was done offline.

“We wouldn’t know the results of voting here until tomorrow,” Rafizi told reporters at the Julau sports complex which the party had picked as the polling station.

He said the votes could only be uploaded into the system “when they reach a place that have strong signals”.

But it’s not the poor internet service or the heavy rain that had pelted Julau all morning that Rafizi, whose mood matches the dark clouds, is worried about.

The agonisingly slow voting process is clearly frustrating him.

It takes an average of three to four minutes for a voter just to go through the registration stage and get his QR voting code and another eight to cast his vote.

“At the rate things are going, I’ll be lucky if a few hundred people can vote ” he said.

“And I’ll be more lucky if I can hit 1,000 votes by the end of the voting period.”

Rafizi calculated with the seven registration terminals and a rate of three to four minutes per person per terminal, only 40 people can vote in a hour.

“And there are 3,000 people queuing outside.

“It’s very slow. It takes them ages to get in (to vote).”

The bottleneck, he said, was at the registration stage.

“I’m concerned because in all the divisions where the support is overwhelming for me, we have this problem.

He said it has now been four weeks since he last complained about the slow process with the e-voting system.

“I’m just frustrated that after four weeks, it’s the same problem,” Rafizi said.

“My voters have been denied the right to vote because of insufficient machines (registration terminals) and poor planning.”

He nonetheless admitted the not so tech-savvy voters in this rural community was also another reason for the slow voting process.

He said though his faction has given the longhouse folks training on how the e-voting works and to use the tablet, he admitted many are still not familiar on how to key in their votes.

Rafizi needs to pick up more than 3,000 votes in this last leg of the party elections in Sarawak just to draw level with incumbent Azmin Ali. – November 10, 2018.