Pakatan Rakyat MPs came under strong fire from Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin today for their "irresponsible behaviour of not attending" a briefing session by the Election Commission yesterday.

He vented his frustrations on DAP Youth chief Anthony Loke on www. Ipidato.com, saying only 10 Pakatan MPs were present.

NONE "The electoral roll is an important issue with the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih). However, when the EC wants MPs from the ruling party and opposition to attend, only 10 Pakatan MPs were present.

"Even Loke, who is in the parliamentary select committee, was not present," Khairy is quoted by Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia as saying.

Khairy, who is Rembau MP, said EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof explained demand for the 42,000 names of dubious voters in the electoral roll by saying that they were non-active voters.

He said the EC had also sent the names to all political parties for them to identify whether the status of the voters concerned could be verified.

The New Straits Times today reported that 240,000 election workers had been trained by the EC for the coming general election.

The workers include district officers, assistant district officers and staff of district offices and local councils.

Compared with this year, only 149,000 election workers were trained for polling days tasks in 2008.