Confusion reigned on polling day when DAP's Fong Po Kuan could not independently determine if she had won the Batu Gajah parliamentary seat that night, although she was already crowned its MP over national television.

By 8pm Sunday, Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate and rival Ong Ka Chuan had called a press conference to concede defeat.

However, Fong was caught in a bind - she could not confirm with her returning officers as to whether she had won. Confirmation of her victory, by 7,927 votes, was only obtained at 4am yesterday.

The problem, as DAP later found out, was that several of its election agents were unable to obtain the Election Commission's (EC) verified vote count from certain polling stations.

In addition, some of the forms containing the vote tally from each polling station had not been signed by representatives of the political parties involved. Their endorsement of certain results was also missing.

EC officers were also found to have filled the figures in pencil, rather than with indelible ink as required.

'Faster with abacus'

More disconcerting was the fact that, when Jelapang BN candidate Mah Hang Soon requested a recount, there were problems over the seals on boxes brought to the main counting centre.

According to Su Keong Sing, the newly-elected Pasir Pinji state assemblyperson - who had been present at the counting centre - it was evident that the boxes had either not been resealed or the seals had been broken by the time these were brought into the room.

Mah lost the Jelapang state seat to DAP's Hee Yit Foong by 249 votes. Hee garnered a total of 8,231 votes.

However, asked if he intended to challenge the results, Mah declined to comment.

In Ipoh Barat, DAP deputy secretary-general M Kulasegaran - who won by 598 votes against BN incumbent Ho Cheong Sing - expressed great frustration with the lengthy counting process.

When the counting was completed at 1am, Ho requested a recount which delayed the final announcement to 5.30pm yesterday.

"Everyone else was elected on Sunday. Ipoh Barat only declared its winner on Monday," Kulasegaran said last night.

"It is great irony that, in this day of information technology, Malaysians have to wait so long for the results of an election. This will definitely be the first issue I will raise in Parliament."

Equally frustrated with the counting process, Buntong BN candidate Yik Phooi Hong quipped: "My father can do it (count) much faster with the abacus."