KUALA LUMPUR (May 8): Less than eight hours before polling stations open for Malaysia’s 14th general election, motorists are still crawling their way out of the Klang Valley, with major northbound arteries seeing a steady uptick in congestion.

This is despite traffic into most hot and marginal seats barely recording an increase, with some areas seeing their roads being smoother-than-usual.

Vehicles heading towards Bentong along the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway were still the most badly affected, with traffic volume surging more than threefold leaving the Bentong toll at 10pm.

Past Bentong, the Gua Musang highway which saw heavy congestion earlier is now clear. However, traffic is heavy heading into and through Kuala Krai in Kelantan, stretching all the way towards Machang.

Heading north, traffic is slow moving along the North-South Expressway from Kota Damansara up until Tanjung Malim in Perak, and further north past Trolak.

Traffic is particularly heavy going into Permatang Pauh, where the average traffic volume doubled between 7.00am and 10.00pm.

In other cities across the Peninsula, traffic is also heavy flowing north from Johor Bahru along the North-South Expressway past Senai into Kluang, where DAP’s Wong Shu Qi is contesting against BN’s Gan Ping Sieu and PAS’ Hasbullah Najib.

Also seeing a surge in traffic is the route leading into Marang, Terengganu considered a hot seat as PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang is contesting there against Zarawi Sulong of PKR and BN’s Mohamad Nor Endot.

Meanwhile, five marginal seats identified in Kelantan - namely Machang, Bachok, Pasir Puteh, Kuala Krai and Kereteh - saw higher than average traffic volumes this evening.