AFP Photo
US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama addresses a rally at Bathune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, on September 20. The eye of the global financial storm stalled over New York and Washington and shoved the most compelling election race in years largely to the sidelines. WASHINGTON (AFP) 

In any other year, a Sunday morning six weeks before a US election would be a feast of low blows and flying elbows, with presidential campaign operatives trading punches on television talk shows.

Not this Sunday.

The eye of the global financial storm stalled over New York and Washington and shoved the most compelling election race in years largely to the sidelines. Operatives for Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama and Republican John McCain were noticeable by their absence on most of the Sunday morning network television talk shows.

NIEI monitor the By- Election in Permatang Pauh from 15th to 27th August 2008. Three teams from NIEI covered Seberang Jaya, Permatang Pasir and Penanti.

Those are few pictures that taken by our Election Monitors during the whole mission.

27th August 2008

The 12-member of NIEI arrived in Permatang Pauh on Aug 15 to monitor the by-election for a period of 12 days, during which a temporary office was set up for this purpose.  

NIEI chose to focus on the mobile observation methods during the entire process, from the nomination day to the campaigning period and the election day itself.  As we are not accredited to the SPR and as such did not receive authorization to enter polling stations, we gathered our information from surveys and interviews with voters, party agents and supporters, as well as activists, to evaluate the situation on the ground.

Here we would like to share some of our finding during the monitoring activities.