Cameron Highlands by-election: Among the first to vote? A disabled woman

KUALA LIPIS (Bernama): Despite being wheelchair-bound, Marina Yusuf, 44, was already on the road at 5am Saturday (Jan 26) for the two and a half hour ride to Cameron Highlands to vote.

By 8am, when all the 29 polling stations for the Cameron Highlands by-election opened, she was already at her polling centre at Sekolah KebangsaanTanjung Gahaihere and was the first in the queue at Stream 1 to cast her vote.

Marina, who has been living in Setiawangsa in the federal capital after her parents died, was accompanied by her sister, ShayuslizaYusuf, 45, who is also a registered voter in the Cameron Highlands parliamentary constituency.

They were driven here from Kuala Lumpur by Shayusliza’s husband, Rusli Ismail.

“This is the third time I am voting since the 13th General Election (in 2013) at this polling centre.

“We return to our hometown because we want to fulfill our responsibility as voters to determine a better future for all of us,” Marina told Bernama after casting her vote.

An Election Commission (EC) worker helped her to the car after she was done with the voting.

Another wheelchair-bound voter, Siti Aminah Mat Akhir, 82, from Kampung Tanjung Gahai, said her physical condition would not stop her from exercising her rights as a citizen.

“The feeling is the same whenever I exercise my right as a voter. I came to vote because it will determine the fate of our country,” she said. – Bernama