Exhilarating experience for first-time voters in Stampin
KUCHING: The chance to be able to exercise their rights to vote proved to be an exhilarating experience for many first-time voters in Stampin yesterday.
Ahmed Irazy Muhammad Roslan, 18, felt proud to have the freedom to vote for the first time.
“I’m still young and to be given this opportunity to vote allows me to contribute as a Malaysian,” he told reporters when met at SJK(C) Stampin, one of the polling stations for the parliamentary constituency.
The first-year diploma student said he felt confident with his choice of candidate and did not hesitate to mark his ballot paper at the voting booth.
“I already had someone in mind after doing some reading on the candidates contesting in Stampin.
“I also learnt about politics at my university so that really helped to guide my thought process on how I should cast my vote,” said Ahmed Irazy, who is studying public administration at Universiti-Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sarawak.
Denedy Wong, 27 also voted for the first time in the 15th General Election (GE15), having skipped the previous elections as he was studying overseas.
“I was studying in the UK then so I didn’t get to vote in previous elections. It feels great to finally have the chance to exercise my rights as a citizen,” he said.
Wong, who works as an auditor in Kuala Lumpur, said he specifically flew back to Kuching so he could carry out his civic duty.
For best friends Tristan Ng and Samuel Huang, the opportunity to vote was a chance for them to be part of the country’s democracy system.
“Voting is a contributing factor to bring about change for a better future,” said Ng, 22.
The personal banker felt confident with his choice of candidate but admitted that it was initially, a tough decision to make.
“I had to do quite a lot of research on which party to choose and which candidate is more reliable.
“I read up on the news and history of the parties contesting in Stampin as well as what they have done for the constituents in the past,” he said.
Huang, on the other hand, already had a candidate in mind when he arrived at the polling station to vote around 9.30am.
The 22-year-old fresh graduate said that the youths should keep themselves abreast of the country’s politics so that they are aware of the current scenario.
“Being politically aware would give one a rough idea on who to vote for; which party is more reliable in bringing development to the people and is proactive when it comes to the community,” he said.
Stampin voters were out bright and early yesterday morning with many gathering at SJK(C) Stampin polling station as early as 7am.
Stampin is the second largest constituency in Sarawak in terms of number of registered voters with 121,009.