Six bus loads of Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters and members, mostly from Kedah and Penang, heading for the Indera Kayangan by-election in Perlis were stopped at a police road block at the KM20 Jalan Alor Star-Kangar this morning.

Kedah state assembly speaker Badruddin Amiruldin, who was among those stopped, said his appeal to the police officer-in-charge to allow them to proceed to Indera Kayangan was rejected.

Police then escorted the buses together with their passengers to Kangar. As of 4.30pm they were still there.

A source told malaysiakini that police had set up the road block as they had been alerted by a tip-off that buses ferrying a large number of Keadilan members and supporters would be heading to Indera Kayangan today.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders have filed police reports over the incident. A scuffle between opposition members who were present at the road block and the bus passengers has also been reported.

A policemen reportedly lost a tooth after being punched by an unidentified person.

Phantom voters

During the Lunas by-election in November 2000, opposition members had stopped 12 buses carrying BN supporters, suspected to be phantom voters, from entering the constituency.

They had escorted the buses to the nearest police station. The buses were eventually escorted out of Lunas.

A month after the by-election, which was won by Keadilan, police charged six Keadilan members, including party leaders Tian Chua and Ruslan Kasim, for 'rioting' when stopping the buses.

Umno's Taman Medan assemblyperson Norkhaila Jamaluddin who was among the bus passengers at the roadblock today said she had organised passengers for three of the buses.

"I brought these people here for shopping. You know women ... its all shopping," she told reporters at the Kangar police headquarters where one of the six buses are being held.

Of the three busloads of shoppers brought by Norkhaila, two were all-women.

Low turnout

Meanwhile, the voter turnout at the seven polling stations in Indera Kayangan this morning was unexpectedly low. According to an Elections Commission spokesperson, as of 10am, only about 1,000 voters, mostly Malays, had cast their votes.

However, by 3.30pm, the commission reported that total voter turnout had reached 50 percent although turnout of Chinese voters was still low.