Rain or shine, young & old, even brides & grooms, M'sians go to the polls on Nov. 19

As of 4pm, 70 per cent of eligible voters had voted.

Tan Min-Wei | November 19, 2022, 07:45 PM

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Malaysians headed to the polls on Nov. 19 to decide who form its next government.

As of 4:00pm, over 70 per cent of the electorate had voted according to Malaysia's Election Commission, with some braving long lines and even flood waters to do so.

High water mark

This image that went viral on social media is of voters waiting in knee deep water while waiting to vote.

The hashtag claims they are voters in Sarawak in East Malaysia.

 

Another shows a boat ferrying voters along a flooded road, with only Pakatan Harapan flags to indicate where the old road was.

Long queues

Meanwhile in Peninsular Malaysia, voters joined long snaking queues to get to their polling places.

Photo by Mothership

Photo by Mothership

Photo by Mothership

Photo by Mothership

Young Malaysians, swelling the ranks of voters for the first time since the voting age was lowered to 18, proudly took to social media to show off their fingers marked with indelible ink.

The ink is meant to indicate that a person has already voted and stop voter fraud by preventing them from voting again.

But many Malaysians have also used this as a proof of voting on their social media accounts, to show that they have done their part, and express their hope for a better Malaysia.

Photo by Mothership

But it wasn't just the youngest, with older Malaysians making their way to the polls as well.

This post showed a supposedly 102-year-old woman going to vote for her 15th time.

Happiest of days

Expectations for this election have been building for nearly a year.

Most anticipated it would be called soon after Barisan Nasional, which has ruled Malaysia in some form uninterrupted from independence until 2018, retook power in August 2021.

While the government was not required to do so until September 2023, parliament was dissolved in October 2022, leading to some finding themselves needing to take time out of pre-planned events to perform their civic duty, such as this bride and groom.

Perhaps most remarkable is that they appear to not be the only ones doing so.

While others took a break from day to day work.

 

Polls closed at 6pm.

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Top image via @imbree_isaac/Twitter & @AnneDanam/Twitter