26th May - The results and celebrations
Originally published at from beyond the viewfinder. You can comment here or there.
Here’s the final installment for the Hougang BE2012. During the past 2 rallies, I thought it’s not too bad to be a photojournalist, until I went through this. It was ridiculously crazy. It’s just crazy to even try to get a shot at some point in time. Suddenly, jostling with uncle bobs during weddings seem like peanuts. It was a great experience though, totally love the atmosphere, especially at the Worker’s Party’s den. Here are some images from that evening. I think I have more, but I’ll look into them when I have time… backlogs are piling up!
At the PAP headquarters in Hougang. Scores of activists watching the live telecast of the By Election and cheering everytime Desmond Choo is on TV.
DPM Teo arriving at the PAP headquarters. He went on to speak to the activists briefly before leaving. I left about the same time to cover the WP’s side at a coffeeshop a few blocks away while the other TOC photographer covered the PAP side.
Something’s on TV… doesn’t look like positive news.
Whatever the outcome, we are all Singaporeans. OK?
A signed hammer!!
The folks at the coffeeshop going crazy everytime Png Eng Huat or anything related to WP comes on TV.
And the opposite reaction whenever Desmond Choo came on TV.
The crowd’s reaction when Mr Png Eng Huat was announced to have won the By Election.
Emotions ran high for some of WP’s most faithful supporters.
And we had a little tap dancing on the table too.
As with all happy occasions, three toasts of yum seng were proposed for the victory.
WP supporters began to move towards the road in anticipation for Mr Png Eng Huat to arrive.
While waiting, the folks cheered on every other car that passed by, especially police cars, buses and any other car with a WP flag or umbrella stuck out of their windows. It was party atmosphere for sure.
WIN.
“W”in!
The crowd.
Like me, they waited along the road for the WP folks to arrive. But we were wrong, they came in from the carpark at the back to the coffeeshop.
All of sudden, everyone rushed towards the coffeeshop. Even the police couldn’t stop people from crossing the roads. This was as close as I could get to them. It was SERIOUSLY crazy!
I had to anticipate where they were heading and waited there. Good thing there was a little traffic jam at the carpark exit and that gave me a small time frame to try to get a shot through the human chain surrounding the car.