DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today questioned the reason given by the Election Commission (EC) that the indelible ink used for voting must to be shaken before it becomes indelible.

Describing the argument as "terribly illogical", Lim said he has never heard that indelible ink needs to be shaken before use.

"The EC must come clean. Why choose a brand that needs to be shaken?

"Is it because of the song ‘Harlem Shake'? They must play the song in all EC offices," he joked.

"How many times we need to shake it? Once every hour or twice every hour? So the polling agents now need to shake it?" he asked during a press conference in Johor Bahru this morning.

Lim said the failure showed that the EC cannot conduct a free, fair and clean election.

“What's the use of such ink? This is cheating. It is open to abuse, isn’t it? What if everybody doesn’t shake it?”

He warned that it may “pollute” the result of this general election.

“The EC should have told us earlier that it needs to be shaken.”

The press conference then turned into a dispute between Lim and a reporter from a mainstream newspaper when the reporter pointed out that DAP has been scrutinising the electoral roll for years and Pakatan Rakyat had won five states in the last general election even without using the indelible ink.

Lim argued that if the last election was free from irregularities, the opposition would have won the federal government.

He accused the reporter of being partisan, while the reporter said Lim always evaded questions from the media.