Malaysiakini CEO Premesh Chandran had the shock of his life today, when polling agents from three different parties tried to stop him from voting, claiming that someone with his name and IC number had already cast the ballot.

"I went to the polling centre at Sekolah Alam Shah in Section 12 Petaling Jaya at noon to cast my vote," related Premesh.

When he finally got into the polling room, the EC clerk who checked her list found that he is a voter there and had not voted yet.

"She announced my name and my voter number. But as I was about to proceed, the three election scrutineers from BN, PKR and DAP all protested, insisting that my name has been crossed out on their list."

However, the EC clerk, said Premesh maintained that in her list, he had not voted yet.

The scrutineers were bipartisanly adamant, however, each reading out Premesh's exact name and IC number, as having already voted and crossed out on their lists.

Though despite the scrutineers' united protests, the Returning Officer disallowed their objection and allowed him to vote.

"I am not sure what happened, either somebody crossed out the wrong name, they made a mistake, or something else is going on," concluded the Malaysiakini CEO.
Premesh voted under the Petaling Jaya Selatan parliamentary seat.
Premesh is not alone in finding himself electorally cloned, as at least six similar cases had occurred in Johor, and several Selangor voters who went to vote, only to be told that someone had used their identities to vote before.

However, in their cases they were denied the opportunity to vote.

Reports have surfaced of foreign looking men presenting themselves at polling centres nationwide to vote, with anti-electoral fraud groups alleging that they are being shuttled in to vote using identities of actual Malaysian voters.
Meanwhile, fellow Malaysiakini journalist Ram Anand was also stopped from entering the polling centre in Sitiawan, Perak after some party workers suspected him of being a foreigner.

Ram, who had gone to a primary school in Kampong Sitiawan to vote at 8am, was stopped at the entrance of the school for about five minutes, as a PAS worker was apparently unconvinced that the former was a Malaysian.

He and a DAP worker then inspected Ram's IC and asked him numerous questions- including the details of his education, before allowing him to continue voting.

Once they appeared satisfied with the answers, the party workers sounded jubilant and quipped, "so you know how to vote."