GE14 | MCA said it welcomes Malaysians in Singapore to return to vote in the coming election, despite caretaker deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's remark yesterday.

“I don't care what others have said. We should let them come back to vote by all means.

“Second, we see many civil society groups are initiating car pool programmes. From MCA's perspective, we welcome them to fufill their citizen's duty (to vote). We welcome them,” MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong told the media today.

He was asked to comment on Zahid saying voters in Singapore who cannot get leave because the 14th general election has been set on a Wednesday need not come back to vote.

When asked about possible congestion at the causeway as a result of the midweek polling day, Wee admitted it was an issue.

“Those who don't live in Johor Bahru will see such issue as a big problem.

“Even on a normal day, the Johor Causeway will be jammed. Sometimes it is not related to the Malaysian authorities.

“It may be because of an accident, or the Singapore Customs tightening their checking.

“We call our Singapore counterparts many times, but we couldn't do anything about it,” said Wee.

He denied the government would deliberately discourage voters to foil the opposition, as claimed by critics.

“We also hope everybody can smoothly go back to their home town and vote.

“We don't need to do this. They are our relatives. They want to come back and vote. Why should we make our voters' lives harder?” said Wee, adding outstation voters would not necessarily vote for the opposition.

On Tuesday, Singapore's Straits Times reported Malaysians living there were upset about the polling date being on Wednesday.