JITRA, April 28 — Supporters from the three parties contesting the Jerlun parliamentary constituency turned the sleepy district of Jitra into a riotous parade of colours this morning.

PAS supporters were the earliest to make an appearance with dozens of motorcyclists bearing the Islamist party’s flag riding past the nomination centre located in SMK Sains Kubang Pasu at around 7am.

However, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) dark blue were the first to march into the nomination centre in the hundreds at 8.15am accompanying party candidates Datuk Othman Aziz, Datuk Abu Hasan Sarif and Ahmad Azhar Abdullah while reciting Islamic praises (selawat nabi) to Prophet Muhammad.

Roughly five minutes later, the full force of PAS’ green tide came in, roaring "Allahuakbar” (Allah is great) while also reciting the selawat nabi together with candidates Abdul Ghani Ahmad, Mat Rejab Md Akhir and Azhar Ibrahim.

Finally, the red wave of Pakatan Harapan (PH) made their appearance under PKR’s banner together with Amanah candidate Dr Salmee Said and PPBM’s Datuk Abdul Aziz Mohamod while chanting: "Pakatan Harapan!”

BN supporters gather outside the nomination hall at Sekolah Menengah Sains Kubang Pasu during the 14th General Election Nomination Day, April 28, 2018. ― Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

The coalition’s parliamentary candidate Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir is expected to arrive after 9am as he needs to register in the neighbouring Jitra state constituency.

At a glance, it seems that PH had the least number of supporters accompanying their candidates.

By 9.30am, BN supporters started teasing their PH opponents when they arrived at the nomination centre.

The 500 strong BN supporters who were the first to arrive at the nomination centre started chanting: "DAP! DAP! DAP!” the moment they saw their rivals entering the nomination centre at SMK Sains Kubang Pasu.

The 300 PH supporters were mainly made up of Malays from PPBM, PKR and Amanah rather than the Chinese dominated DAP party.

They simply ignored their rival’s jeers.