Batu Sapi voters vent after missing cash handout??

SANDAKAN, Nov 3 — A group of mostly Chinese voters who gathered outside the MCA office in Sim Sim here today, purportedly to receive RM100 each in exchange for their votes, were turned away in disappointment after hours of waiting under the blazing afternoon sun.

The voters turned up in the hundreds, crowding around the back entrance of the party’s Sandakan division office, jostling one another to inch their way up to the party office on the third floor.

When approached by The Malaysian Insider, several said they had received information that MCA was giving out RM100 to each registered voter in Batu Sapi.

“All we have to do is bring our MyKads and our voting slips or something,” claimed one man.

He noted that he had been standing in line for hours, from 11am this morning until nearly 3pm.

“I heard they ran out of cash,” he further claimed.

Several DAP leaders, including Sri Tanjung assemblyman Jimmy Wong, paid a visit to the office shortly after noon today and attempted to convince the voters not to allow themselves to be bought.

They did not, however, discourage them from receiving the money.

A long line of voters waiting to receive what they believed was a 'promised' RM100 outside the MCA office in Sim Sim, in Sandakan, here.

Just before 3pm, however, word reached the crowd that the party was no longer giving out the money.















“Just imagine, this is how Barisan Nasional cares for the people. There is no longer any money to give the people but no one informed them and they just let them wait here for hours. So many people have fainted,” said Wong.

A large portion of the group turned away vented their frustration by cursing at MCA for failing to inform the waiting voters outside in advance.
“My vote will go to the opposition now. How could they do this to us? Making us wait out here in the terrible sun and not telling us what is going on,” said one angry woman.
Several others were heard muttering similarly under their breath as they left the venue in a huff.

One man told The Malaysian Insider that during their long wait, a few people had fainted from heat and exhaustion.

One elderly lady, who was seated on a chair outside the office waiting for her turn, had apparently fallen off her chair and hit her head on the pavement when she fainted from the heat.

She was rushed off by the others who were waiting with her.

Another lady claimed that she had successfully made it to the office this morning but was turned away from receiving her RM100 as she was not a MCA member.
As at 5pm this evening, many people were still seen loitering outside the MCA division office. The door to the office has however been locked.

After the uproar the incident had caused, especially on micro-blogging site Twitter, Sabah MCA chief Edward Khoo held a press conference to explain the incident.

(Source : The Malaysian Insider, 03 Nov 2010)