Pressure mounted today on election commission chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman and his entire team to quit over his handling of the polls which gave the government a landslide victory.

A local watchdog, the Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections said Sunday's election was badly managed and the worst ever held since independence in 1957 and should be nullified.

"The election commission chief and his entire team must resign. An independent commission must be formed to study all the weaknesses," Khairul Anuar, secretary of the watchdog said in a statement.

Khairul said some 100 of its volunteers travelled nationwide to observe the election process.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's ruling National Front won a landslide victory against the fundamentalist Islamic Party (PAS).

Opposition parties had said there were irregularities in the electoral roll that kept thousands of voters from the ballot box.

The Election Commission (EC) was forced to extend voting by two hours in central Selangor state after discrepancies in the rolls saw names of many voters missing from the lists.

It also nullified the vote for a state seat in central Pahang and postponed polling to March 28 after a mix-up of party symbols in the ballot papers.

No resignation

Abdul Rashid was quoted by the Star newspaper as saying that he would not step down.

"This is because any resignation will surely not help resolve any of the problems faced by the election commission in conducting election," he said.

Local newspapers said many furious voters in Selangor left without casting their ballots after queuing for hours to find their names missing from the roll.

"This election is the most chaotic, inefficient and outrageous in the country's history. It is a terrible blot in Malaysia's election history," said Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition DAP.

Abdullah, who won a resounding endorsement of his five-month rule after taking over from former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has also slammed the EC over the glitches and ordered an investigation. - AFP