election day - 6 may 2006


my involvement in this general election - the 10th - was made known to me in the week leading up to polling day. i was appointed the premises coordinator. my main duty was to provide technical support for the election teams. originally, mr simon tan was designated the assistant coordinator. as he is no longer with the school, mr rahman was nominated for the post. in reality, mr rahman was the coordinator and i, the assistant.

got up at about 4.30 a.m on polling day. arranged to pick mr maniam at 5.30 a.m. from the bus-stop outside the army camp, opposite chong pang village. reached the meeting place at 5.25 a.m. waited for mr maniam for a short while. he had gone to the coffee shop to buy breakfast of roti prata and coffee.

when we reached school, no one was in sight: no policemen and no polling officers. checked and found everything was in order. nothing had been disturbed. we used the red and white (contractor's) tape to cordon off the area beyond gate b. voters entered the school through gate a and they left the school through gate b. there was a policeman stationed at each of the two gates. only those who needed the wheel chair were allowed access through the main gate. they allowed only cars with invalid passengers to be driven into the school compound.

just before 8 o'clock, we opened the two gates. the very keen voters were outside the gate even before 7.45 a.m. at it longest, the queue stretched beyond the main gate of the school. the peak period was in the morning when the stations first opened. we had two stations - sb27 & sb32. we placed a desk, inside the school, near gate a, so that the policemen could check the bags of voters. those who came with small children had to leave their children at the covered walkway leading to gate a.

everything went on smoothly. mr maniam and i did the early shift; mr rahman and the contract worker mr yap did the other shift, from 1.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.