KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — About 25 people were arrested today for protesting against the Election Commission (EC) outside Parliament House here.

Some 300 protestors, mostly dressed in black, called for the resignation of EC members after the contentious 13th general election that saw Barisan Nasional (BN) form the federal government despite losing the popular vote to Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

“BN is a minority government,” Norain Othman told The Malay Mail Online when asked why she was protesting.

“I am protesting for the SPR chairman and deputy chairman to resign,” the 23-year-old business student said, calling the EC by its Malay initials, and added, “They lied in the general election. They conspired with BN for them to win.”

Some 50 protestors also lay on the pavement beside the road in front of hundreds of policemen.

Another protestor, Mandeep Singh, told The Malay Mail Online that Election 2013 was “all based on fraud”.

“So people do not accept the election results,” said the 27-year-old activist, adding, “all seven Election Commission commissioners should resign.”

The protest ended about three hours later at noon after the demonstrators from some 50 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) handed a memorandum to Khalid Samad, the Shah Alam MP from PAS, to call for free and fair elections, for a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged electoral fraud in Election 2013, and to revamp the EC’s leadership.

“I accept it on behalf of Pakatan Rakyat and we will bring it to Parliament,” said Khalid.

“We will ensure that the people are not cheated by gerrymandering and we want to make sure that it’s the majority who forms the government,” he added.

PR has accused BN of retaining power through gerrymandering, where electoral boundaries are manipulated to allow the ruling coalition to win most of the smallest parliamentary seats.

Analysts have said that BN maintained its grip on power on the back of rural support, noting that one vote in the countryside is worth six urban votes.

The EC has announced a redelineation exercise will be held by the end of the year.