Even as politicians were keeping tabs on the likely outcome of the Pengkalan Pasir by-election, their conduct was being closely monitored by observer-group Malaysian for Free Elections (Mafrel).

As one of the observers in the group, I saw aspects of campaigning and polling that went unreported by the print and electronic media.

Day 1: Politics in the mosque

I arrived about 4am on nomination day Nov 27, together with a number of friends from Penang, and went to a mosque. A query arose in my sleepy head: given the hotly contested by-election atmosphere, how would Muslims from Umno and PAS get along in the mosque?

It was quickly answered: my Muslim friends and others who went to the main hall were promptly told that a local person in charge had locked it. My friends, who are from an opposition party, shook their head in disappointment. They performed their prayers at in an area outside the main hall.

Then we proceeded to a nearby roadside stall for breakfast. We waited for a long while in the crowded outlet, but could not get anyone to take our orders. Then someone told us to take the food and inform the operator later. I later found out that the couple who ran the stall were too busy to serve so many customers and left it to self-service.

There was a sign that the couple was not well prepared for the large crowd - they were still charging 60 sen for a cup of tea or coffee, but the price rose to RM1 later that day. Perhaps this was why we could not find locals to speak to at such stalls; they had been priced out by the swarm of outsiders. There were easily 10,000 campaigners brought by the main political parties for their Nomination day rally, which began around 9am.

Similarly the 4-wheel drives and Mercedes Benzes that jammed the narrow roads provided a clue to the fact that those enjoying the food even at small gatherings were mainly of the 'rent-a-crowd' variety from outside Pengkalan Pasir. One candidate was astute enough to make political capital of this, with his slogan: 'When the outsiders leave, I'll still be around to serve you'.

The 'outsiders' factor certainly distorted the perception of a support base for each party. There were about 10,000 supporters for each side at the nomination centre. When the votes were eventually announced, each side could only muster about 7,000.

At the nomination centre in a school, I was trapped on the PAS side and could not cross to the Umno side because of a police blockade created a 50m buffer zone between the two. As I watched those waiting in the sun, I saw a two-member camera crew with the equipment marked 'USM' - I was told they were from the Universiti Sains Malaysia medical campus in Kelantan and were assigned to record footage of students campaigning for PAS.

In the next few days we were able to take photos of vehicles from various campuses. Two USM students were said to have be caught on camera by the crews who went to PAS ceramah and operation centres. I found this particularly disturbing since the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate is a student but was accepted as a candidate by the returning officer of the Election Commission (EC).

The returning officer reportedly replied to a PAS objection that the Election Act allows all eligible citizens to run as candidates, and that the University and University Colleges Act (which bars student involvement in political activities) is another matter. The blatantly unfair way of enforcing laws in Malaysia could not have been better illustrated by this stinky example of double standards.

Worse, the streets were full of Putera and Puteri Umno members who looked like students. While resting in a coffee shop opposite a police station, I took a photo of a group of campaigning Puteri Umno members - my friend from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia identified them as being from his campus.

Day 2: Mafrel outlines strategies

I met up with the other four Mafrel members, who were operating from the Kota Baru office of a friendly Muslim group, and we were later joined by about 25 locals. Mafrel chairperson Malek Husin outlined the strategies.

We were to monitor the electoral roll and campaigning - including election conduct, election expenses and the EC's work - conduct voter education, offer training to polling agents from all parties, and observe polling. We were not required to investigate the electoral boundaries since no redelineation exercise had been conducted by the EC.

As much as it was exciting, much of the work was experimental and adjustments were needed for the methodologies which come from experiences abroad. For instance, polling day monitoring was modified to adjust to the reality that the EC did not allow us enter the polling centres. We added monitoring of the environment around the polling centres to our `menu'.

My tasks included preparing a press release and a leaflet for voter education. Others prepared the 'observer' badges, forms for each monitoring activity and the daily schedule, or analysed the electoral roll. Little did I expect that each step would produce effects that would come thick and fast.

Day 3: Shocking finding

The most shocking finding from monitoring the electoral roll - distributed in print and VCD form - was that 70 percent of the voters did not have a traceable mailing address. In the 10 polling districts, this affected between 30-90 percent of the voters. No wonder it was so easy for suspicions about 'phantom voters' to arise during the second half of the campaign period.

Locals later told me that many rural people don't have an address. This suggests that the EC, which registers them, did not do their job well. With such a high percentage of incomplete data, the Pengakalan Pasir roll was unacceptable.

We were only able to verify the identity and address of 30 percent of the voters who had provided an address. We formed three groups and visited places that had six or more registered voters. Even checking the 47 addresses was a headache because of the haphazard way in which the houses are numbered. My group spent two hours trying to locate the first address before marking it as 'untraceable' whereas Malik's group gave up the first day. The next day, a local led them to all the addresses.

Other than asking locals - many of whom were sympathetic and even helpful - we tried to contact district officers and penghulus, but they were difficult to locate. We also relied on political parties, but their members were not always able to help despite being locals. We completed the voter verification exercise in two days.

Day 4: Media blackout

We met the EC returning officer, also the district officer, who said he would consider our request to be allowed to enter the polling centres to observe the process on Dec 6. He verbally approved the presence of two observers at the tabulation/vote aggregation centre. He even treated us to lunch, but that was his last friendly gesture. He never confirmed approval despite repeated enquiries and reminders.

While we were at the office, journalists arrived to cover an EC press conference. They were from Bernama, New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Sin Chew Daily. They took enough interest in Mafrel to take photos of us, so we gave them a copy of our press release (in three languages) on the voters without traceable addresses.

Later, we sent the press release to the media centre located next to Pemuda Umno's operations centre (for the English and Malay media) and MCA's operations centre (for the Chinese media). Didn't they know that, as journalists, they should keep their distance from the contesting parties? Not surprisingly, they did not publish our statement, which only appeared in the Internet media and a Singapore-based Chinese newspaper. Weren't our findings important?

The opposition reacted to the media blackout on them by publishing a tabloid daily called Warta Pengkalan Pasir throughout the campaign period. This was the only news sheet that covered Mafrel's activities. The under-resourced independent candidate was invisible most of the time, except for adding to his banners regularly.

Day 5: On Umno's campaign trail

We began monitoring the campaigning, going for four functions at which BN chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was present. I was at the second function at a school at Bangol Cicak. There were about 500 attendants and unknown number of non-voters.

We observed the following questionable conduct:

  • Use of police outriders for Abdullah: was he performing his government duties or party functions?

  • Use of the school buildings, as though Umno is free to use federal government facilities for party purposes;

  • Use of students to carry flags; they were wearing Putera Umno caps and t-shirts that reached the knees of the younger children. There were many youths who looked like university students and, therefore, should not have been there.

  • Serving of food, which is barred as it may be deemed an inducement for votes; and

  • Open, unrestrained campaigning by two speakers - the Pasir Mas Umno chief and the Umno Kelantan head.

Abdullah spoke in unaccessible language about Islam Hadhari but received little response from the probably bored audience at two functions, which about 1,500 civil servants from federal agencies also attended. Was he entitled to summon them to the talk? Many civil servants were involved - we took many photos of government vehicles zipping about Pasir Mas.

We went to the last of Abdullah's functions that night - the launch of a flood-mitigation project at the river bank in Kampung Jia. It was raining when we arrived, which probably delayed his arrival by an hour. The canopies could only provide shelter for about 1,000 people and I felt sorry for the flag-bearing kids who were made to line up a few times in the rain after false alarms were raised. A giant balloon collapsed, causing panic, but it was refilled in time for Abdullah's arrival 10 minutes later. This embarrassing episode did not make it to the press.

Another questionable point arose during the function with the announcement of a public allocation. This is a violation of the principles of free and fair election, as it is tantamount to offering a sweetener. Throughout, we recorded what we saw and took plenty of photos.

Day 6: Reward for information

We printed 10,000 leaflets on voters' rights and distributed these at mosques in Pasir Mas with the help of two Muslim groups. We also tried to trace PAS campaign functions involving party leaders, so as to maintain balance in our monitoring targets. We were frustrated when PAS operation centres could not provide information.

However, the party did offer RM15,000 for information leading to cases of 'phantom voters' or money politics being identified. This news spread fast as banners and posters were out everywhere. It became the talk of the town, but did not lead anywhere. Yet it put BN on the defensive, with denials being separately issued by the EC chief and by BN deputy chairperson Najib Abdul Razak.

Day 7: Tracking election expenses

We organised into two groups to photograph three big-ticket items - billboards, grand structures including huge balloons, and operation centres - as a way to track the election expenses of the candidates.

We wanted to record footage and then counter-check the cost by seeking quotations from several advertising companies. In this way, we hope to find out if candidates had exceeded the limit stipulated by law - RM100,000 for state seats.

As far as I know, there has not been any successful challenge legal challenge involving election expenses to date, although one case involved vote-buying in Sarawak (Donald Lawan v Abang Wahed b Abang Muzi & 2 Ors 1997).

While working on this, we received a distress call from Malik who was called up by the police over our leaflet on voters' rights. He was questioned over our assertion that voters have the right to stop election officials from recording their names and serial number of their ballot papers.

(Such details enable anyone to find out how someone has voted, thereby nullifying the secrecy of the vote, but this has long been a practice during elections. The practical reason for recording such details is to prevent people from voting a second time. But other countries address this by requiring voters to ink their thumb or sign a receipt for the ballot paper.)

The police took 90 minutes to satisfy themselves about the issue. We saw an EC officer leaving the police station in between. When Malik came out, he said the police even wanted to interrogate all 30 members of the Mafrel team. Where else could they have obtained our names except through the returning officer, who had asked for a list in relation to our request to enter the polling stations?

Malek was questioned a second time for an hour on another day, but persuaded the Investigating Officer not to call up the whole team. Despite this, two members were questioned later. We released the news of Malek being harassed by police and EC but again it was only picked by the Internet media and Warta Pengkalan Pasir. Why were the media disinterested in the harassment of an independent observer group?

Day 8: Violation of election principles

We found out that PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat would be in Pasir Mas in the morning, to announce approval of a new building for the market, and to hand out welfare payments to about 100 recipients who suffer from chronic diseases.

We noted the following violations of free and fair election principles by PAS:

  • The Kota Baru council helped to set up government function but PAS used the occasion to campaign, albeit on more restrained basis than BN. All the speakers noticed us and toned down their speeches. One speaker even said he did not intend to campaign during his speech, but rushed out his political messages towards the end. Another called for the PAS mandate to be retained but did not refer to the party's candidate who was present. Nik Aziz did not turn up as advertised; his deputy represented him. Many state government vehicles were seen there, but the logo on one was covered.

  • Handing out welfare payments during an election campaign period also amounts to a sweetener.

  • It was clear that the function was intended to be used for campaigning, as the candidate was present; the presence of the PAS- appointed district officer, also the election returning officer, was suspect, although he left before the event began.

I felt that our presence perhaps made the most impact here. It also showed that PAS leaders felt a greater discomfort about the abuse of public facilities compared to Umno leaders.

Day 9: Buses stopped

Campaigning came to a stop at midnight before polling day. That night, two buses said to be ferrying 'phantom voters' were stopped by PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) members. The buses were rerouted to a police station and the passengers released after investigation.

Were they 'phantom voters'? This could not be established because they were not caught while casting votes.

The day was spent on briefing new arrivals for observation work.

Day10: Polling day

We assigned at least two persons to each of the 10 polling stations set up mainly in schools. I was at SMK Perempuan Pasir Mas about 8am. The police and EC officials completed their preparations. At 8.30am, the police started shooing people away from the kawasan larangan (buffer zone of 50ft from the polling station). The road became congested as party members made loud noises trying to impress voters passing them.

Najib appeared with his entourage, walked past the kawasan larangan guarded by lots of police, and headed towards the school. I asked a policeman why he had been allowed to do so. He looked embarrassed and said: Apa boleh buat? (What can I do?). Many BN party members and the press accompanied Najib, but he was prevented from entering the polling station. Looking disappointed, he spoke to the press before jumping into a vehicle and leaving the scene.

Wow! It was the first time I had seen any Umno leader being prevented from entering a polling station. According to EC rules, only the candidates and their appointed agents are allowed into the polling stations. There were similar stories about Umno Youth Deputy Chief Khairy Jamaluddin - Abdullah's son-in-law - being prevented from entering other polling stations. This by-election showed heightened awareness on the part of the Kelantanese.

Hearing that a government vehicle was parked across the road in front of the BN pondok panas (information booth), I took photos of the car - the logo was covered with paper. The driver covered his face with his hand, but I hung about waiting for him to put his hand down. Suddenly he drove off. I felt I had done my small bit in discouraging abuse of government facilities, apparently rampant in both political camps.

A few more buses were stopped by PAS and PKR that afternoon in Tendong some Mafrel members witnessed this.

Party campaigners went the votes aggregation centre when polling ended and found about 1,000 FRU personnel and police lined up in front of the school. The unprecedented mobilisation was apparently for traffic control. Why were they there, really? Was it to pressure voters and the EC?

Darkness fell as the vote-count from each polling station was announced. A nearby mosque began amplifying a religious lecture, which drowned out the announcement. As the initial results came in, PAS was said to be leading. But a reporter told me that news was circulating in Kuala Lumpur that BN had won by 134 votes.

Najib and his entourage passed the crowd to enter the school. A PAS supporter described this as a bad sign. BN won by a majority of 129 majority, which rose to 134 after a recount the following day.

Lessons learnt

After a report-back and debriefing session the next day, I left a different Kelantan. The election result was like a political tsunami.

It will take a while for everyone to absorb the significance of it all. But I was there to observe the election conduct, not the results. What I saw was enough to tell me that Malaysia is still far from the day when free and fair elections can be conducted.

The late nights we experienced would be worth it if we apply our experiences to future elections as our small, but much needed, contribution towards democratising elections and society.

I left feeling that many Malaysians want to see greater democracy prevail.

ONG BOON KEONG served with observer-group Malaysian for Free Elections during the Pengkalan Pasir by-election. This is a personal account of his experiences.