SUNGAI PETANI, 7 April 2009: Barisan Nasional (BN)’s Datuk S Ganesan and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s S Manikumar both cast their votes at approximately 8.20am here in Bukit Selambau today.
Ganesan, from the MIC, arrived at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Tamil) Ladang Perbadanan polling station at 8.10am, with his wife Datin T Vatsala.
They both cast their votes together at around 8.20am in the by-election for the Kedah state seat.
Ganesan casting his vote with wife T Vatsala
Merdeka Review reported that Manikumar arrived at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Taman Ria Jaya at 8am and cast his vote alone at 8.20am.
Both Ganesan and Manikumar were calm and confident about their prospects of winning.
“I have more confidence this time compared to what I saw during the March 2008 general election,” said Ganesan.
“The voters’ minds have changed. Hopefully, tomorrow they’ll look at me differently — as their servant who is here to serve them,” he said this morning.
Ganesan also thanked the media for its hard work in “making Bukit Selambau so popular”, especially since this is a record-breaking by-election with 15 candidates in total.
He said he would be visiting all 22 polling stations throughout the day.
Manikumar said that he considers today personally quite historic, Merdeka Review reported.
“I have cast my vote four times before, but this is the first time I am standing as a candidate, and it happens to be in my constituency,” he said.
Manikumar and his supporters
Manikumar also said he was confident PKR would win the by-election with an increased majority.
At 8.50am, Manikumar visited Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Tamil) Ladang Perbadanan.
He and Ganesan then exchanged pleasantries and wished each other luck.
The Election Commission (EC) anticipates that the results for the Bukit Selambau poll are unlikely to be announced before 10pm due to the large number of candidates contesting.
The total votes will be tallied at Dewan Sekolah Menengah Teknik Sungai Petani 1 tonight.
The by-election was called because of the resignation of PKR elected representative V Arumugam who cited threats and pressure to defect to the BN.
In the March 2008 elections, Arumugam beat BN candidate S Krishnan with a majority of 7,695 votes. 
