Lack of voter turnout in Petaling Jaya

PETALING JAYA - The number of voters who turned up to vote at Sekolah Kebangsaan Petaling Jaya was lower than expected, according to Election Commission (EC) officers.

One officer said that the queue for voting was long until outside the polling station during the 15th General Election (GE15) in 2022, but there was no queue at all this morning.

"Maybe more people will come to vote in the evening, but for now, the turnout is definitely lower," the officer told Sinar Daily.

However, a family of four who came to vote today said that the turnout was the same as GE15.

Norsiah Rohmi Ibrahim, 64, who has retired, said that she did not see any difference in the number of people voting this time around.

"If people don't come out to vote, they are only hurting themselves," she said.

Rosliza Ibrahim, 53, who is the head of Human Resources for a private company said that the voting process was smooth and efficient.

"I give the EC a thumbs up for the good flow," she said.

Nasley Shah, 40, who is in the logistics industry, said that the low turnout could be due to the good organisation by the EC.

"Maybe more people will come to vote later, but it seems like there are fewer people because there is no long queue," he said.

DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has also expressed concern about the low voter turnout.

"The voter turnout percentage is not as high as it was in GE15," he said.

"We are worried that this will affect the results of the state election. So far, the voter turnout has dropped by 10 per cent."

Lim urged voters to come out and exercise their democratic right to vote.

The situation at the polling station was calm, with EC officers and police officers closely monitoring the crowd control.