SHAH ALAM, April 17 — The Election Commission (EC) should not process objections filed against newly registered voters if the complainant is absent during its public hearing, DAP lawmaker Ong Kian Ming said today.

Speaking to reporters here at the Selangor EC office, Ong claimed that complainants rarely attended the public hearings conducted by the EC.

"The voters will attend the hearing but not the complainant. So, all these cases should be put on the electoral roll immediately and the public hearing shouldn’t be held.”

The Serdang MP and Kuala Kubu Baharu assemblymen Lee Kee Heong was present at the EC office today to observe how public hearings are conducted.

Malay Mail Online spoke to several voters who were present during the public hearing.

Tan Wei Hoong, a 22-year-old student from Tanjung Karang, said the RM100 compensation would not be able to buy back the time he wasted for attending the public hearing.

"I couldn’t go to college today and my dad had to take a day off from work. It’s really a waste of time.”

His father Tan Beng Hock, who spent two hours driving to the EC office, said: "Money doesn’t matter. We just want to know why the objections were filed.”

Meanwhile, 35-year-old Gan Pei Sze expressed similar sentiments, pointing out that she had to take unpaid leave today for the public hearing.

"I’m angry because I don’t know who filed the objection. My husband had to take an unpaid leave as well just to accompany me here. Why are they wasting our time?”

Malay Mail Online observed that voters present here today were predominantly Chinese. All of the voters said that their objectors were not present during the hearings.

Ong subsequently proceeded to confront an officer from the EC regarding the absence of the complainants during the public hearing.

"While holding a copy of the EC regulations, I told him that you are not supposed to have a public hearing if the complainant doesn’t show up.

"He replied to me, saying that the regulation I read out was in English, and he will only listen to me if it’s in BM,” said Ong.

Ong said he will demand that the EC provide statistics on objection filed against newly registered voters.

"If they don’t give us, we will demand for the statistics in the state assembly and the Dewan Rakyat.”