So to mark the commencement of a month long (or two) of our lives slaved entirely to the general elections, some of us journalists and producers at Astro AWANI decided to celebrate by having what I think is the best banana leaf rice in town – Nirvana in Bangsar (my colleagues may beg to differ).
So after a satisfying lunch, we decided to get right into the heat of the election by having our own Jelajah Bilik Gerakan – starting with the Lembah Pantai constituency, of which Bangsar is part of it.
We essentially just wanted to familiarise ourselves with the workers and election officers as well as to do some ground work before the big day.
Lembah Pantai was the perfect place to start as it is one the supposedly battle royales.
Nurul Izzah Anwar of Parti Keadilan Rakyat won the constituency with a narrow margin of 2,895 votes in 2008, defeating Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Shahrizan Abdul Jalil who was the incumbent since 1995.
No doubt Barisan will go all out to reclaim this seat and that responsibility is expected to be shouldered by Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin.
At publishing time, the nominations have not been announced but I doubt you will be able to drive around Lembah Pantai area without noticing billboards featuring images of him.
Our first stop was the Barisan Nasional Bilik Gerakan which is located at Jalan Bukit Bangsar.
As we walked in, were greeted warmly by workers who were busy putting up the blue flags on bamboo poles and wires.
Here are AWANI journalists Zan Azlee and Shafizan Johari in the operations room.
In another room meanwhile, we saw Puteri Umno members preparing flyers and party newspapers.
We chatted a bit with some of the officers and they were mostly pretty excited and all geared up towards the elections.
After conducting some interviews and taking photographs and videos, we decided to head for the other side - Bilik Gerakan Pakatan Rakyat.
Now, this was slightly tricky as we took many a wrong turning around Kerinchi, Taman Seri Sentosa and Kg Pasir before finally arriving at the location where we found ourselves peering into a dark tinted glass door of a shophouse, pondering if anyone was in.
We were about to leave when a guy walked over, opened the door, looked at us suspiciously and asked sternly, “Media mana?”
“Astro AWANI,” answered Zan.
A brief two seconds later, we were granted access!
The atmosphere inside the bilik gerakan was a stark difference from our earlier encounter.
Firstly, there was only one person manning the operations room.
Secondly, flags practically non-existent and what we saw were mostly maps and charts on the walls depicting demographics breakdowns of each zone in the Lembah Pantai constituency.
We asked about the subdued atmosphere and we were told that it was still early and a full force campaigning effort would start once the nominations are announced.
So that is our observation on the first day, post dissolution. We definitely can’t wait for it to get more interesting on the ground.
* Our reporter Shafizan Johari will be following the Lembah Pantai constituency closely right up to election day. Follow him on twitter for more updates @shafizanjohari
