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2 polling centres located side by side in Gombak leaves voters confused

KUALA LUMPUR: There are three polling centres located along a less than one kilometre-long stretch in Gombak and this has left some voters confused.

Two of these polling centres- SK Taman Seri Gombak and SK Taman Seri Gombak 2- are located side by side and this caused voters to be puzzled when they arrive in the area.

This compelled them to double check their details on the Election Commission website.

An Election Commission officer on duty at SK Taman Seri Gombak 2 said at least 100 voters had mistakenly come to the polling station as of 9.30am this morning.

He said he had to redirect them to the SK Taman Seri Gombak, which was next door.

The man in his 40s, who is tasked to man the front gate and guide voters, said some voters even inadvertently ended up in some of the polling channels inside the polling centre he is assigned.

He said those people would soon realise their mistake when they find that their names were not listed in the polling centre.

"Please make sure that your station is SK Taman Seri Gombak 2. If it's SK Taman Seri Gombak, it's next door," he said to a swarm of voters coming in through the front gates.

The officer, however, said he saw a difference in the categories of voters assigned to SK Taman Seri Gombak and SK Taman Seri Gombak 2.

"I can recognise it now. They have different channels for both schools. If I see the elderly saying they are in channel six, I know their station is next door because the same channel here is only for the younger ones," he said.

Commenting on the voter turnout, he said, it's definitely less than what he had seen when he was on duty at the same station during the 15th General Election (GE15)

"We have learnt from our mistake and put in more chairs and segregated the lines for the channels.

"During GE15, the crowd was so large. So now, we put in more chairs and tents and even segregated the lines throughout the school.

"But so far, the crowd is not as large as during GE15. I'm not too sure why," he said.

Both schools are under the Gombak Setia constituency, which is seeing a three-cornered fight between Perikatan Nasional candidate Hilman Idham, Barisan Nasional's Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin and and independent candidate Mohamed Salim Mohamed Ali.

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