The Election Commission (EC) officials refused to cooperate with Barisan Nasional and Keadilan leaders to check at random the alleged "phantom" voters who arrived in Lunas on 14 buses, according to Keadilan Youth chief Mohamad Ezam Mohd Noor.

Speaking to reporters near the Lunas police station, Ezam ( photo , right) had earlier met with BN secretary-general Khalil Yaacob and Kedah Deputy Chief Police Officer, Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid and at one stage agreed that 30 names of the passengers selected randomly from six of the 14 detained buses would be checked against the EC's electoral roll ([#1]'Phantom voters' detained by BA supporters[/#], Nov 29).

However, when the EC officials were consulted, no permission was given for both parties to check against the electoral roll, Ezam reported, adding that this was "most suspicious".

Later, both parties agreed to allow the police to check the passengers' names against the EC electoral roll, but this was stopped by some "politician", said Ezam.

At about 11.35am, the police gave permission for all 14 buses filled with passengers to leave, after the names and identity card numbers of the passengers were recorded.

An MIC leader from Kedah, identified only as Sivalingam, assured Ezam that all the buses would return to the states they came from, and would not be allowed to go to any polling station.

Ezam said he would instruct his supporters to follow the buses out of Lunas.

'Overzealous'

Earlier, the police already indicated they were prepared to release the 200-odd passengers waiting in the buses - all school, factory and tour buses carrying outstation registration plates - held within the police station since 8.30am today.

Ezam protested, saying that they could be released only after a "report" is completed, and this led to Ezam's meeting with the Deputy CPO and Khalil who had arrived at about 10.30am to discuss how they could verify the status of the passengers in the 14 buses.

According to Ezam, the BA supporters had stopped the buses at 8am and first escorted the buses to the BA operations centre, but two Federal Reserve Unit and four Government Operations Force trucks arrived later to escort the buses to the Lunas police station.

Khalil said the 200 passengers were BN supporters who had arrived from other places as there was not enough accommodation in Lunas.

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Chor Chee Heung, who arrived at about noon, was asked by reporters why there were so many buses arriving from outstation. His short reply: "Ask Adil (Keadilan).

"The BA supporters were acting overzealously ( ghairah )," he added.