Date/Time: Sat (26th Jan 2008, 3.30 p.m.)
DAP Damansara Community & Service Center
55M ，Jalan SS 21/1A, Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya
For more information, call 6017 339 3636. To ease our arrangements, e-mail your name and phone number to pollingagent@gmail.com . Walk in participants will also be welcomed with open arms.Do your part! Ensure a clean and fair 2008 elections - VOLUNTEER AS A POLLING AGENT and/or COUNTING AGENT!
To find out more about what polling and counting agents do, read on. ;-)
A polling agent is someone who sits in a polling stream (the classroom where the voting takes place) and observes the voting process. Each school may have a different number of polling streams (saluran mengundi) depending on the number of voters in that area. Each polling stream caters to a specific age group.
A counting agent is someone who observes the counting of the votes after polling closes at 5pm.
You don't have to be a member of a political party to become a PA or a CA. You have to be Malaysian and above 21 to register as a PA or a CA. This is done through the political parties.
A PA is armed with a copy of the electoral roll for that particular classroom, pencil/pen and a ruler. The PA basically observes the voter as he/she enters the room. The election officer will read out the voter's name, IC number and his/her number on the electoral roll. The PA will cross out the voter's name on the electoral roll to ensure that we know exactly how many people voted in that classroom.
A PA must be alert and take note if there are any irregularities, eg. the voter is female but the IC number denotes the voter is male, the voter is much much older or younger than the IC indicates, the voter is Indian but has a Chinese name, etc. The PA has a right to object and raise questions.
10 comments:
Hi Tony,
If we become a PA and/or CA, will DAP issue us a Certificate as token of recognation for our contributions?
Hi Tony,
Why not DAP DU organise a "2008 Election PA / CA Award"?
And give a small token to PA that managed to spot Phantom Voters during the Poll Day?
Also, small token to CA that clarify highest "Ragu" vote during the Poll Day?
Please consider.
I hope the briefing will be more structured this time.
The last time I went 1-2 weeks back, the speaker, while genial and smiling, took a long time to explain what can be explain in 30 minutes. All the while being interjected by 2 other DAP members. This is definitely not a good impression.
There were 2-3 enthusiastic attendees, who were new to all this and you can see they want to contribute to make the country better. One young woman complained that DAP only appeals to the Chinese, etc, but one DAP member only said that DAP is aware of it. OK, when exactly will this translate to more Indian/Malay participation in DAP? After the elections? I'm aware that Malays might support DAP covertly but surely something assertive could be done to demonstrate that DAP is for all races. It hasn't been working, beyond LKS' ocmments on the Indian plight. I think a lot of people still feel not enough is being done w.r.t. to this.
Also, to promote this polling agent briefing, some guy named Edward Ling is mass-emailing everyone about the "underaged" ICs on the SPR website as a gimmick to get attention. He has since mass-emailed again correcting his earlier assertion that the ICs are not of underaged voters. I don't know who the hell he is (he didn't even state if he is affiliated to DAP), but it is very tacky, ill-advised and smacks of lousy planning and marketing.
I think you should use your corporate background to really overhaul your organizational sytems. If DAP was a company, I really would not do business with it - that is the brutal truth. It badly needs better customer relations, organization and leadership.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for your comments. They are much appreciated.
There is no question on the fact that organisationally, DAP is not able to compete with BN, much less a corporation.
With possibly the exception of myself, the entire PJ team is made up of volunteers who are sacrificing their free hours to help out for absolutely nothing in return. Yes, I agree completely that there is plenty of room for improvement - but unlike corporates, we can't "pay" for the best.
Nevertheless, the above doesn't stop us from further improving ourselves, and I'm certain that the team has improved the delivery over the last few sessions - which is a benefit of starting these sessions early. So long as there are no expectations that we will become one lean mean efficient machine overnight, we should do ok.
Feel free to email me should you have any further comments or suggestions. And thank you so much for volunteering to be a polling agent.
Best regards,
Tony
Hi Dan,
I'm not 100% agree with what you mentioned above but your constructive suggestion is welcome and noted.
I was at the training (same night with you)
But again, since DAP is lack of both financial and human capital re$ource$ and you seem to have lots of experiences in organisation management! Why not you and me come forward and to assist DAP?
Maybe with your contribution, DAP will be the best organisation in Malaysia.
Please feel free to contact me at khinghong(at)hotmail(dot)com
This is our country we are talking about here. Our future and our children's future. If we really want to see a change, then we should step up without the need of wanting DAP to provide us with certificates or token to be either CA or PO.
If we are unable to see past this, then the other alternative is to continue with UMNO-BN.
I think public relation is very important especially when there are fence sitters. Some kind words or directing the voters to the right source instead of saying "do not know" or going around like a circus would discourage one from voting DAP.
Agree that Malaysians are not good in public relation and it would be ideal if there are some pointers
... and would rampant corruption, high crime rates, declining education standards, racist policies etc would encourage one to vote for BN???
Lets get this straight. I am no DAP member. I just dont understand the fuss about DAP not getting things done right etc etc. We got this evil BN who is robbing from us, but instead of working to throw out BN, we are nip picking about DAP or the Opposition??
Look at those BN monkeys like Bung Mohktar, Nazri, Zam etc, are they the perfect role models in terms of public relations or perception of the current government??
I mean if PJ folks are still complaining about DAP this and that, then what about UMNO-BN with their racists, sexists remarks and corruption??
If these UMNO-BN's nonsense still dont discourage one to vote for change, then we certainly deserved to be raped in broad daylight by UMNO-BN.
For 50 years we had BN so we know what to expect with BN. It is as simple as that, actually.
I have a question. What is DAP doing for Chinese New Year? I like to hear you, Jeff and some of the younger leader speak. Can give Ang Pow.
Hi Tony ,
Please tell us more about the Civil Society Initiatives (CSI) Mission re parliamentary reforms that you and your DAP team endorsed recently =)
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