PERMATANG PAUH, May 7 — A scuffle broke out here today after PKR supporters alleged that Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters were within 50 metres of a polling station — which is strictly against election laws.

Teruntum state assemblyman Sim Chon Siang said that the BN supporters were breaking the rules by standing so close to SMK Guar Perahu, and that the Election Commission (EC) was not doing their job of dispersing them.

“You see them, they are not 50 metres away, I think only 20 metres, they have to move but when I complain to the SPR (the Malay acronym for Election Commission), they said have to wait for the patrol squad to come,” he added.

An EC agent and several police officers were seen mediating the two groups who were shouting at each other, with one man yelling out “If you want to campaign, do it properly”.

The fight started when a BN supporter mocked PKR supporters, saying “what kuasa (power) you got?” to question their proximity to the polling centre.

This then caused unnamed PKR supporter to throw the first punch.

Police officers had to step in and break up both groups of supporters, numbering now at 100 people for both BN and PKR.

“Pindah, pindah (move away, move away)!” PKR supporters shouted.

After a five-minute discussion with the authorities, the group BN supporters agreed to disperse without any incident.

The clash between PKR and BN supporters has been temporarily resolved after PKR’s  Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh and BN’s Deputy Health Minister Datuk Hilmi Yahya negotiated that the BN camp should move their operations.

“The SPR said they are in the wrong, within 50 metres so I told Datuk Hilmi they should move.

“He agreed and said he will try to convince them to move,” she said.

She added, however, that if the BN supporters did not move within an hour, she would not be able to control the actions of the PKR supporters.

Approximately 40 minutes after the negotiations, another incident occurred as a BN supporter was seen throwing the a water bottle across the road towards the PKR supporters.

This resulted in both sides throwing various objects like bottles and rocks at each other before the Light Strike Force pushed both groups of people back and stopped the disruption.

There are no reported casualties

SMK Guar Perahu is one of the 25 polling centres in the Permatang Pauh constituency where as many as 8,000 residents have cast their votes as of 9am today.

A total 71,252 ordinary voters will be casting their votes today to decide which party they want to support while a total 549 policemen, military personnel and their spouses having already voted on May 3.

It is a four-corner fight for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat between PKR’s Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail,  BN’s Suhaimi Sabudin, PRM’s Azman Shah Othman and independent Salleh Isahak.