Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today dismissed the allegation by PAS that phantom voters existed in the Pengkalan Pasir by-election.

"There are unidentified people who live elsewhere and return here to vote. We do not know them and they have returned to vote," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Last night, he said, PAS supporters stopped several buses on the pretext of trying to prove that phantom voters existed but what they actually tried to do was scare voters away like in Lunas.

In the 2000 Lunas by-election in Kedah, supporters of an opposition political party stopped 12 buses carrying Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters and machinery whom they thought were phantom voters.

"There are no phantom voters. There are voters from elsewhere, true. Voters from outside are allowed; they return to vote because their names are on the electoral roll.

"But PAS do not want to believe it. They believe in phantom voters. In the bus, there were voters, tourists and others," said Najib.

Phantom voters are people who are brought in from outside to vote on behalf of existing voters or those who have died but remained in the electoral rolls.

Firm action

Yesterday, Kelantan police chief Zulkifli Abdullah said the police would take firm action against those who stopped vehicles and individuals suspected of being phantom voters.

Meanwhile, Puteri Umno leader Noraini Ahmad said at 2am today, a group of men stopped a van with nine of her movement members on board in Kubang Bemban.

The women were then questioned for two hours and photographed before the police came and took them to the Pasir Mas police headquarters where they lodged a report, she said.

She said the incident happened when the women were returning to Rumah Umno Pahang in Slow Machang after completing their work but lost their way in Kubang Bemban.

Technology, Science, and Innovation Minister Dr Jamaludin Mohd Jarjis when met at the police headquarters said the men stopped the Puteri Umno members because they thought the women were phantom voters.