State polls: Kota Baru nurse goes straight from late work shift to early civic duty

KOTA BARU: It was a late night that stretched into an early morning for nurse Zunaria Said, who voted at the SK Panji polling station here on Saturday (Aug 12).

Upon finishing her shift, Zunaria, 49, rushed to the polling station without catching a wink of sleep.

She said her 26-year-old son picked her up at Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II as soon as her work was over and brought her to SK Panji.

“I don’t remember how many times I’ve voted, or even the first time. To me, voting is a responsibility that we must fulfil no matter how often we have to do it.

“My son who is also voting here picked me up right after my late shift ended this morning.

“We decided to just get this done in the morning so that we will have more time to rest later,” she said when met here.

For Aini Mohd Nor, 57, every polling day reminds her of her first time voting, which was in 1990.

That year marked the time PAS took over the Kelantan state government and for a young Aini then, it was a moment to remember.

“I came here today with three of my friends because we wanted to avoid having to park too far away and walking alone.

“Every time I vote I will remember the 1990 election. That’s when we had a change in state government.

“I was only 24 years old at the time. What a historic moment it was,” she said.

Zunaria and Aini are voting for the Panchor state seat, which is seeing a straight fight between Kelantan caretaker Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Amar Abdullah of Perikatan Nasional and Syed Mohd Alidustur Syed Mohd Zain of Pakatan Harapan.

There are 42,768 registered voters for the Panchor seat.

In the 14th General Election, Amar won the seat with a 7,288 majority, defeating Barisan Nasional and Pakatan candidates.