GE14 | The Wednesday polling date for the 14th general election is undemocratic and will deprive some overseas Malaysians of their right to vote, Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

He said while villagers would find no trouble in coming out to vote, the situation may be different for Malaysians working overseas who are ineligible for postal voting.

“I think for the kampung people, they can come out. But for people who are working, they will find difficulty in coming to vote, and also the people living abroad.

“We have about 500,000 workers in Singapore, so these people should be voting. But now they are deprived of their right to vote - for the government or for us - and this is very undemocratic, almost not giving them their rights,” Mahathir said at a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

The Election Commission (EC) had announced the rare move of holding a general election on a Wednesday, which is May 9.

Mahathir said the move is unusual and appears to be meant to inconvenience voters as much as possible.

“I believe during my time, there was voting not at the end of the week but that was because it was on a holiday that we fixed the voting,” he added.

Mahathir had presided over five general elections during his premiership between 1981 and 2003.

The 1995 general election ran from a Monday to Tuesday, and saw the lowest voter turnout in Malaysia’s electoral history, at 68.3 percent despite two days of polling.

The 1999 general election was held on a Monday, which was declared as a holiday, and saw the second lowest voter turnout at a Malaysian general election, which is 69.3 percent.

Voter turnout at Malaysian general elections generally hovers around 75 percent, although it spiked to 84.4 percent in the last general election, on which polling day was held on a Sunday.