I contested the parliamentary seat P109 Kapar as a Keadilan candidate. It was my first contest in the general election.

Kapar has the largest number of voters in the whole country, i.e. 104,185 voters. Under Kapar, there are four state seats, namely, N42 Meru, N43 Sementa, N44 Sg Pinang and N45 Selat Klang.

Kapar should have been divided into two parliamentary seats with each consisting of two state seats and having more than 50,000 voters.

There are 22 parliamentary seats in Selangor. Of the 22 seats, four have less than 50,000 voters, namely, P92 Sabak Bernam (30,862), P93 Sungai Besar (31,001), P95 Tanjong Karang (35,816) and P96 Kuala Selangor (41,712). Under Sabak Bernam, Sungai Besar and Tanjong Karang, there are only two state seats.

The discrepancy between Kapar (the largest seat) and Sabak Bernam (the smallest seat) is more than three folds. From the one-person-one-vote principle, it is grossly unfair that the value of each vote in Kapar is more than three times less than that in Sabak Bernam and Sungai Besar . It is about one third value of each vote in Tanjong Karang .

In other words, Kapar voters could elect three members of parliament with values of votes in Sabak Bernam, Sungai Besar and Tanjong Karang.

The glaring unfairness to the Kapar voters is that the sum total of voters in Sabak Bernam, Sungai Besar and Tanjong Karang is even less than the voters in Kapar.

Why Kapar not divided?

It is unfairness that happens within the Selangor state. If we compare Kapar to P125 Putrajaya , the smallest parliamentary seat in the whole country, having only 5,079 voters, the discrepancy is extremely huge indeed. The value of each vote in Putrajaya is far too high.

Why has Kapar not been divided into two?

In the 1999 general election, P Komala Devi, the BN candidate, polled 27,830 votes and Dr Zulkifli Ahmad, the PAS candidate, polled 24,970 votes. The BN candidate won with a thin majority of only 2,860 votes. Therefore, if Kapar is divided into two, it will be too risky to the BN.

Instead, by incorporating Sungai Pinang into Kapar, the number of voters, in particular Chinese voters, in Kapar has increased and the percentage of Malay voters has decreased from 56% to 49%. Clearly, it is meant to make it difficult for PAS to win the Kapar seat.

I took part in the elections with the full awareness of unfairness in the Malaysian electoral system, nonetheless never had I expected the BN to be so afraid of losing in the elections that they were prepared to make a mockery of the Election Commission (EC) and the election process.

It appears that the BN do not have the confidence in their ability to win in the elections with the system set up by themselves. They went all out to manipulate the EC to commit unfairness and fraud in order to win the 11th general election. As a result, the BN won without honour at all.

Obviously, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi does not believe that the BN under his leadership could fare better than the BN under Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership did if the 11th general election was conducted fairly and freely.

Abdullah has lost his credibility when he dismissed the proposal to set up a royal commission to investigate allegations that the general election was conducted unfairly.

That proposal comes from none other than the EC chairperson himself. Why should Abdullah fear a free and fair investigation? It goes to show that Abdullah is not the kind of leader whom we can count upon to bring about justice.

All over in three weeks

The 2004 general election was conducted in a hasty manner. Parliament was dissolved on March 3, nomination day was fixed on March 13 and polling day on March 21. All was completed within three weeks. It was carried out as if to break the record of the shortest general election in our electoral history.

Why should Abdullah fear a long election campaign period, if he has served well as the prime minister of Malaysia for about four months and his record of service was splendid?

The eight days' campaign period is very unfair to me contesting in Kapar. As an opposition candidate, I contest lacking in three Ms, namely, money, media and machinery. All my election workers are volunteers, the mass media is controlled by the BN and the government machinery has been abused for the BN election campaign.

Perhaps, it was not such a problem to the candidates contesting in Putrajaya. They had to deal with on average only 635 voters a day whereas I had to meet as many as 13,023 voters a day.

During the eight days, half a day was spent on the nomination procedure. One day was spent, travelling by public boat, to Pulau Ketam and Sungai Lima in order to meet the voters there.

I was left with six and a half days to introduce myself to the voters in other places. Practically, I had to rush from one place to another in an effort to meet as many Kapar voters as possible in such a short span of days.

In addition to the Chinese press publishing my pictures, I depended on posters, leaflets and name cards to put forward my face to the voters. In certain places, when my posters were put up late in the night, they were covered with the small BN flags in the next morning. Besides, banners appealing to the voters to vote for me disappeared the next day. Protests to the EC did not change the situation very much.

I was grateful that no scuffle taking place between my workers and BN workers. However, I was very disappointed with the EC on the polling day.

Barely two hours after polling began, I received calls from my agents in the polling centres. Many voters complained that they could not vote because their names had disappeared from the electoral register. The situation had become very chaotic.

Many waited for hours only to find out later that their names were not on the register inside the polling centres. As a result, many went home and did not bother to vote because they were angry and regarded voting as a fuss.

Some rushed from one polling centre to another hunting for their names. Some got to vote in the end because of their own efforts and were lucky as well.

Police report lodged

The confusion in the polling centres was caused by two different electoral registers used. On nomination day, I was given the electoral register gazetted on March 2, 2004 but on polling day, the electoral register used was gazetted on March 15, 2004.

How could that happen? As a candidate, I myself was in the dark. In that situation, the elections should not have been allowed to go on. The EC had committed injustice upon me and the voters.

I, my election agent, Yem Ahmad, election agents of Dr Abd Rani Osman (Meru candidate), Abdul Rahman Ibrahim (Sementa candidate) and Dr Halimah Ali (Selat Klang candidate) lodged a police report over that matter.

Approaching 5pm, I received calls again from my polling agents. They informed me that the EC had extended the polling time to 7pm.

Why had the EC extended two more hours? Why did not the EC consult me and get my consent? In the least, I or my election agent should be informed by the EC about its decision.

While the polling time throughout Selangor had been extended two more hours, the voters in Pulau Ketam were denied the right to vote after 4pm. The polling time on the island ended one hour earlier without my knowledge and consent.

If the EC can arbitrarily change the rules of the election game, the electoral roll and the polling time, what is the point of making protests to the EC and having elections?

The turnout at the 11th general election was rather high although many people were turned away at the polling centres. It is indisputable that phantom voters are in the electoral register throughout the country. The EC must ensure that the electoral rolls are cleared of phantom voters.

Before we have any meaningful contests in Kapar and elsewhere, the EC has to be revamped and we should press for reforms in the electoral system.

Against all odds, I polled 29,419 votes. It is an honourable defeat for none of my votes is a phantom. I garnered even more votes than that of eight winners of the 22 parliamentary seats in Selangor.

ANG HIOK GAI is deputy secretary-general of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.