Pulai by-election: Family stops to vote on the way to wedding in Kluang

JOHOR BARU: A Punjabi family, who was supposed to be attending a wedding in Kluang over several days, decided to take time off to come back to the city to cast their votes in the Pulai parliamentary by-election.

Lawyer Balbeer Singh Jessy, 63, his wife Usha Devi Tara Singh, 57 and their daughter Praveen Kaur Jessy, 25, all donned their traditional Punjabi attire to the voting centre at 8am in SK Nong Chik.

“We had to quickly vote and rush off to the wedding ceremony in Kluang,” he said, adding that the voting process was rather quick within 15 minutes.

Balbeer, who has voted many times, said he wanted to ensure his family all came back to cast their votes.

“I hope more people will return to vote in these two important by-elections,” he said, adding that he had been keeping tabs on the ceramah via social media.

When asked if there was anything different during this voting, he said he noticed an absence of young voters when he went to the school in the morning.

Balbeer, a father of four daughters, hoped that the new MP in the area would continue to engage with the local residents, similar to the services provided by the late Datuk Seri Salehuddin Ayub.

Balbeer, who is also the Persatuan Penduduk Taman Kolam Air (Febra) residents committee chairman, said that their biggest issue in the area was about parking along the main road, which caused congestion and made it difficult for residents to move in and out of the area.

“The late MP was proactive and had visited our housing area and even had a dialogue with the residents last year,” he said, hoping that Johor Baru City Council would continue to address the parking issue in the area.

Meanwhile the election commission said that the voter turnout of 1pm stood at 29% for Pulai and 39% for Simpang Jeram.

Pulai has a total of 166,653 voters, while there are 40,488 voters in Simpang Jeram.