In a flurry of patriotic vigilantism, ordinary Malaysians heeding the call of anti-election fraud groups have been keeping watch at voting centres, singling out each and every "foreign" face they suspect to be phantom voters.

This resulted in the social media being bombarded with pictures, photographs of the MyKad and accounts of "foreign-looking" persons who are allegedly phantom voters.

Many such cases show scores of foreign-looking persons stopped, some accosted or even manhandled and handed over to police for verification.

NONE Though many such persons were found to be carrying the blue MyKad, some appeared to be Malaysians with less than familiar faces, though many of those stopped not only looked out of place but were also out of touch with Malaysia in more ways than one.

Many of these people appeared slightly befuddled, had no knowledge of political parties in Malaysia and could not speak proper Malay or sing the national anthem.

Some of the voters are convinced such irregular behaviour is a sure sign that these people are foreigners flown in to vote for certain quarters. As at this time, Malaysiakini was still trying to ascertain the veracity of these reports and pictures on the social media.

In at least one case, a Penang-born Malay with Indian features vented his anger when approached by those who sussed him out as a possible phantom voter.

'I am not a Bangla'

"I am not a Bangla, do they want to be slapped," he fumed in an Facebook posting after he was questioned while waiting in line to vote.

Some netizens also expressed chagrin at the xenophobic way in which those with "foreign-looking" faces were being treated, lamenting that even Malaysians from indigenous communities had been targeted.

One Sabahan in the peninsula, who is often mistaken as a foreigner, wrote on her Twitter that she would have been accosted and accused of being a phantom voter if she was voting in KL because of to her facial features.

In the run-up to polling day, anti-BN group Asalkan Bukan Umno (ABU) declared that it would target, identify and stop foreigners being shuttled in to vote for the BN coalition.

The proclamation drew criticism of ABU as xenophobic and bordering on extreme vigilantism.

Cooler heads have advised caution and called on Malaysians to come out en masse to vote so as to dilute any attempt at electoral fraud.

Going by the numbers of reports, voters seemed to have heeded the NGO's call for them to "guard" voting centres to preserve the integrity of the country's electoral process.