A voter casts her ballot at the SMK Sri Muar polling station in Muar, Johor March 12, 2022. – Picture by Hari Anggara
JOHOR BARU, March 12 – Several Pakatan Harapan (PH) and PKR leaders claimed that some polling stations closed early today without prior notice to voters.
DAP leader M. Kulasegaran tagged the Election Commission (EC) on Twitter in his post with a photo of a closed polling station.
“Why are some polling stations closing so early? This polling station in Bekok closed at 2pm, but no reason was given!
“What about voters who are only free later in the day or coming from rural areas? Is this fair and warranted?” he tweeted.
Kulasegaran also retweeted a video from user Ravi Chander in which a woman can be seen questioning police personnel manning a closed polling station.
According to sources, the three polling stations that closed at 2pm were PDM Ladang Kempas, Ladang Getah Eldred Bekok and Kampong Jawa Chaah, which are all located in Bekok.
Meanwhile, PKR’s Layang-Layang candidate Maszlee Malik also claimed that the same thing happened in his constituency.
“The same incident happened at three polling stations in Layang-Layang DUN.
“Our lawyer is preparing a police report and will file an objection.
“I asked candidates and candidate representatives elsewhere to take similar action,” he said.
Malay Mail contacted the EC for comment but had yet to receive a response at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, the EC announced earlier that out of 1,021 polling stations, 15 were slated to close at 2pm, while another 41 were to close at 4pm.
One polling station in Mersing closed at 11am after all the voters there had cast their ballots.
All of the aforementioned polling stations had only two or three out of a possible 14 streams.