KUCHING: Aside from having to carry ballot papers and boxes by boat to SK Beradek, election workers on duty at this polling station also have to bring along their own food.
Sabarin Riduan, who heads the polling station located in the Demak Laut state constituency, said his team was informed that the caterer was unable to go there and provide them with meals.
He, however, did not state why the caterer was indisposed.
“So we came prepared, not just with the polling materials and equipment, but also with food,” Sabarin said when met at a jetty in Pending.
Demak Laut is a semi-urban constituency in Kuching but there are some locations such as Kampung Beradek that are only accessible by boat.
The journey from the jetty to the village took election workers about an hour by speedboat.
There are 913 registered voters there and the polling station has three streams.
The seat is seeing a four-cornered fight between incumbent Dr Hazland Abang Hipni of Gabungan Parti Sarawak, Amanah’s Jen Peli, Independent candidate Khairul Ahmat and Parti Sarawak Bersatu’s Yatika Jelani.
Sabarin said the team was prepared for today’s polling and had been briefed on their duties.
Aside from officials from the Election Commission, police and health officers will also be on duty at this polling station today.
The sight of ballot boxes and bags of ballot papers flown on helicopters or ferried by boats is common during elections in Sarawak.
For the rural and interior seats of Marudi and Mulu, eight helicopters, two express boats and two longboats would be used to deploy polling agents and clerks to their respective voting districts across the two constituencies in the Baram area.
For Mulu constituency, 299 election workers, including the police, were deployed to 43 polling districts on board helicopters.
A total of 614 election workers were deployed to 69 polling stations in Marudi.
For Telang Usan, another constituency in the interior, 230 election staff were deployed to 46 polling stations.