Caretaker Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy has expressed outrage at the Election Commission's announcement yesterday that the GE14 polling day will be on May 9, a Wednesday.

Ramasamy said BN appears to have conceded defeat by fixing the polling day in the middle of the week, as it probably assumed would result in lower voter turnout, which observers believe benefits the ruling coalition.

He said the opposition was forced to face several roadblocks even before the official campaigning period kicks off, starting with the EC's redelineation exercise which was passed last month in Parliament.

"After that, our ally in Pakatan Harapan, Bersatu was given a provisional suspension by the Registrar of Societies, and now this - polling day on Wednesday," decried the incumbent Prai assemblyperson.

"Is the EC an election commission or omission? They seem to be playing a dirty game to benefit BN," said Ramasamy, who is DAP central executive committee member.

"It's very clear, there is no two ways about it that the move will benefit caretaker Prime Minister Najib Razak as it is based on the assumption that there will be a lower voter turnout," he added.

"Many people have been contacting me to complain about not being able to return to vote, especially those living outstation and overseas, but I hope they will turn up to vote despite all these challenges," he stressed.

In the wake of a barrage of criticisms from opposition leaders and netizens, BN Strategic Communications deputy director Eric See-To defended the EC decision.

"While I do not speak for the EC, I can understand that there is merit in selecting Wednesday as it may deem this to be fair to all states…” he said.

This is because Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan and Johor have their weekends on Friday and Saturday.

‘Make it a public holiday’

Caretaker Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng also took the EC to task for making it "virtually impossible" for Malaysians to travel back home to vote.

Lim said the EC's decision to fix the polling date on a Wednesday is "designed to lower the turnout rate".

"It should be on a weekend, if not how do you get people to come from wherever they are working, outstation or overseas?” Lim told Malaysiakini.

"We wonder if there be any public holiday on polling day to enable people to get off from work to carry out their duty as citizens of Malaysia," added the DAP secretary-general.

Lim also lamented the "short campaign period" of 11 days, as nomination is fixed on April 28. Parties cannot campaign on May 9, polling day.

He argued that the EC's move favours the incumbent government.

"They want to prevent people from voting against the 1MDB fiasco and to drive the death knell of GST," Lim said.

"Make it a public holiday as how can people come back to vote, especially those who are working overseas, like … in Singapore, which would be a working day, regardless?" Lim said.