The Star has clarified that its online poll on the Bersih 2.0 rally was removed after the results were suspected to have been subject to manipulation.

In a statement on its website today, the poll was activated last night and garnered more than a million responses in less than 24 hours, arousing suspicion.

"The Star Online polls attract an average of only about 50,000 responses over several days.

NONE"Furthermore, the total number of unique visitors to The Star Online is about 400,000 per day, lending further credence to our suspicion that there was manipulation afoot," read the statement.

The daily explained that the online poll could have been manipulate through various methods including "scripted routines or 'bots'" that will repeat tasks on the website.

"Indeed, an initial examination of our site logs showed up to 60,000 visits to the poll page from just one IP address.

"Therefore, acting upon the belief that the poll results were tainted, we made the decision to take it offline just before noon today.

"We regret that our effort to give the public a voice has been tainted by this act," read the statement.

Based on a Google Cache snapshot of the poll results at 6.11am this morning, there were about half a million respondents, with 97 percent supporting the Bersih rally.

The number rose to 1.3 million by mid-day, with 99 percent of respondents supporting the rally.

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