The Election Commission (EC) announced that a fresh polls will be carried out for the Sungai Lembing state seat in Pahang on March 28.

Earlier today, voting for the seat resumed after a five-hour suspension when the ballot papers were found to have wrongfully depicted the Keadilan logo for PAS candidate Idris Ahmad.

However, Bernama later quoted the EC as declaring that all votes cast thus far have been nulliffied and a re-vote has been scheduled for March 28.

An outrage Idris told malaysiakini that the mess-up should not have happened.

"We are ready for the re-vote. However, I'm concerned that outstation voters would not be able to get leave to balik kampung (return home) to vote next Sunday," he said.

This afternoon observers from the pollings stations said voting restarted at 1pm after Idris was unable to stop the balloting.

However, when contacted, state Election Commission director Ismail Mohd Yusoff claimed that there was no suspension to the voting and that it has proceeded smoothly since 8am when the polling stations opened.

On the matter of the wrong party logo, he told malaysiakini , "Vote first, we can discuss that later."

Idris is challenging Barisan Nasional (BN) incumbent Md Sohaimi Mohd Shah who won the seat by 1,297 votes in the last election

Major confusion

Idris meanwhile is officially protesting the EC's decision to allow the voting to continue.

Following the discovery of the mix-up, Idris met with Md Sohaimi, Paya Besar returning officer Hashim Wahab and Ismail in Kuantan.

"We discussed the problem and the EC admitted its mistake, but decided to go ahead with the polling in Sungai Lembing anyway," he told malaysiakini .

"But we are definitely filing our objections against the EC's decision today."

Idris said the mix-up had caused major confusion among voters, many of whom had left the polling stations without casting their ballots because they could not find the moon (PAS symbol).

"We had to explain the problem and appeal to them to cross the Keadilan symbol, including the one for the parliamentary seat of Paya Besar where Keadilan is contesting," added Idris.

After the earlier uproar, he said, the situation returned to normal when polling agents and EC officials began clearing the air with the voters.

Returning officer's call

Earlier today, the PAS candidate's representative Ismail Ariffin told malaysiakini that he discovered the error at about 8.30am in one of the polling stations and a police report was subsequently lodged.

A copy of the ballot paper was also handed to the police.

"The people are refusing to vote. We have just lodged a report with the Kuantan police station," he said when contacted.

Election watchdog Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) chairperson Abdul Malek Hussin had earlier told malaysiakini that voting had been suspended.

He said the decision was made by the returning officer after he was informed of the error.

"We have received a report from the Sungai Lembing candidate's representative about the situation there.

"Checks conducted by him showed that the problem of the wrong party emblem being used occurred in all polling stations. The candidate's name is correct, though," said Abdul Malek.