Voter turnout a concern for Ba’Kelalan seat....

Ba'Kelalan. Sarawak - In view of the high cost outstation voters would have to bear just return home to vote, LBA has came out with an initiative to facilitate transportation.

How much do you think a registered outstation voter for the Ba’Kelalan seat will have to fork out if he or she wants to vote this Saturday? The quickest route to reach Lawas is via a flight to Kota Kinabalu and after that hitch a bus or taxi ride with the total fare costing a minimum of RM500 a person. Lun Bawang Association (LBA) Kuching branch chairman Richard Labung Ganang told Bernama this was on the conservative side.

“If there’s no bus or taxi service it could be more than that,” he said, adding that if relatives picked voters up at the Kota Kinabalu international airport (KKIA), then it would be cheaper. Locals working outside Limbang usually opt for flights to Kota Kinabalu as flights frequency to Limbang and Lawas from major towns in Sarawak is rather limited.

After touching down at KKIA, it is a two-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu to Lawas passing through the Sipitang immigration checkpoint. For those from Ba’Kelalan, it largely depends on the weather conditions as driving to the highland takes about six hours if the weather is good while during the rainy season the journey takes 12 hours as the logging roads will become muddy. In Kuching alone, Labung said, based on the electoral roll, there were more than 100 voters for the Bukit Sari and Ba’Kelalan seats.

In view of the high cost outstation voters would have to bear just return home to vote, Labung said Kuching’s LBA had came out with an initiative to facilitate transportation. “I have spoken to someone in Lawas on our proposed budget allocation from Kuching-Kota Kinabalu by air and Kota Kinabalu-Lawas by land, I hope they will look into it seriously so that everyone can go back to vote,” he said.

Lun Bawang outstation voters can contact him at Kuching LBA office at 082-232196 or fax 082-232196 or at handphone 019-8160098, 013-8089999 or fax at his home (24 hours) at 082-649225.

BN candidate Willie Liau who is facing Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian has expressed concern that the voters may not reach the polling centres in time. “I think they can reach Lawas but to reach polling centres in Ba’Kelalan where the road conditions can be quite unpredictable is another issue,” he said. Liau hails from Kampung Buduk Bui, Ba’Kelalan.

Liau’s fears were shared by Sarawak Rurum Kelabit president Gerawat Gala as he was reported in a local daily recently as saying that it would be a big problem for BN to bring more than outstation 400 voters including from the peninsula as “all flights were fully booked and land transport fully reserved”.

Ba’Kelalan has 6,958 registered voters and has been a BN stronghold since 1986.
In the 2006 election, SPDP secretary-general Nelson Balang Rining, who represented the BN, defeated Baru Bian who then contested under a Sarawak National Party (Snap) ticket by a razor thin margin of 475 votes.

source:Bernama

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