Two buses, containing mostly women passengers, have been quarantined at the Pekan Ijok police station this afternoon for almost four hours amidst allegations of phantom voting.

The buses were blocked by hundreds of PKR supporters in Ijok's Bukit Badong, following a half-hour stand off which began at 4pm. However, they were allowed by the police to leave for Perlis, where they came from, at 8.15pm.

During the stand-off, opposition supporters had blocked the buses from leaving the area.

The opposition group, comprising mainly PKR and PAS supporters, had used a four-wheel drive to block the path of the buses.

PKR leaders have alleged that the buses, carrying an estimated 80 passengers and inscribed with the 'Cuti-Cuti Malaysia' logo, were ferrying phantom voters. The buses bore Penang licence plates PGY7000 and PFX7000, and owed by a company based in Kuala Perlis.

Five minutes into the stand-off, dozens of police, including FRU units, descended upon Bukit Badong. Several hundred rowdy supporters from both PKR and BN rallied around the bus.

Scuffles ensued

At 4.15pm Gerak chairperson Ezam Mohd Noor, who is former PKR Youth chief, negotiated with the police to carry out investigations into the allegations that the passengers on the buses were phantom voters.

The buses, along with the passengers, were later escorted to the Pekan Ijok police station 1.5km away.

Along the way, minor scuffles ensued between both camps, and a rock was thrown at one of the bus' windscreen, cracking it.

At 5.05pm, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin arrived at the police station and told reporters that the people in the buses were BN supporters from Perlis.

"They have been confined in the buses against their will... this is not right," he said.

News of the entry of the alleged phantom voters were spread via SMS 20 minutes before the bus was halted.

"We stopped the buses because we received information that people in there were carrying two ICs," PAS Youth leader Hanifah Maidin told malaysiakini .

Meanwhile, the 14 opposition leaders and supporters, who were earlier detained by the police for their alleged involvement in the incident, have been released tonight on police bail.

The two buses also made their way back to Perlis at 8.15 pm.

A Perlis Umno leader, a Datuk Hashim, told reporters that the women in the bus were Umno members who had came to help the BN camp during the by-election as cooks.

Click here to watch a 4-minute video of the alleged 'phantom buses'

Watch below a 5-minute interview with Mohd Ezam Noor