The registration of new voters was eight times higher than normal during the third quarter of 2016, prompting Shah Alam MP Khalid Abdul Samad to raise suspicions on the exercise.

Following this, the figure was five times the usual amount for the fourth quarter of last year, and the first quarter of this year, Khalid said.

He said that the registration of new voters had been steady at around 70,000 per quarter since 2013.

"This raises many questions, and we want to discuss this with the Election Commission (EC) chairperson," he told a press conference today.

Moreover, opposition parties are having trouble registering voters since the EC no longer allowed political parties to act as the commission's assistant registrar officers.

"So who is doing the registration? Where are they coming from? Even when we helped with registration, we only managed to get 70,000 new voters," Khalid said.

Pakatan Harapan and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) held a joint press conference this morning and called for a meeting between the opposition parties and EC chairperson Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

Khalid made the revelation when asked what issues the parties intended to raise at the meeting.

Apart from the huge spike in the number of voters registed, the parties are also demanding an explanation on the EC’s move to stop providing copies of draft supplementary electoral rolls, and its decision to stop appointing assistant registrar officers from political parties.

Shortage of forms at post offices

They also intend to complain about the apparent shortage of voter registration forms at post offices, among other issues.

In a parliamentary reply, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said had said that the EC had conducted a study and deemed that it was no longer necessary to enlist the help of assistant registrar officers from political parties.

Instead, the EC has set up mobile registration counters, Azalina said, and was always open to invitations to set up registration booths.

The Pakatan-Bersatu delegation would be headed by Bersatu vice-president Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, who is also a former EC chairperson.

Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah said that since Mohd Hashim took office last year, the new chairperson had refused to meet opposition parties and never replied to their letters.

This is unprofessional and unbecoming for an institution that is supposed to hold the “confidence of the people”, Sivarasa said, as opposition parties are key stakeholders in elections.

Abdul Rashid added that the EC must conduct itself transparently, and ensure that no one is disenfranchised.

“If you can’t even see this body (the EC), this so-called democratic election has no meaning. This is serious, and we have never done this before,” he added.