It is true that under the election laws, polling can take place on a working day.

To be specific, Section 25 of the Elections Act 1958 stipulates that “Every employer shall on polling day allow to every elector in his employ a reasonable period for voting, and no employer shall make any deduction from the pay or other remuneration of any such elector or impose upon or exact from him any penalty by reason of his absence during such period”.

To put it plainly – employers must give their employees time off if they want to cast their votes even during working hours. Well, that’s obvious isn’t it, as polling stations would be closed anyway after normal working hours?

And if employers do not grant employees such permission the employers are liable to a fine of RM5,000 or to imprisonment for one year.

GE14 will be on a Wednesday, i.e. May 9, 2018 as decided by the Election Commission. So based on the provision of the Election Act stated above, no employer would want to be hauled up for preventing their workers from leaving work to vote. Even though that could lead to a possible disruption in operations.

Someone sent me a Whatsapp message saying one PR company has decided to close for a day on May 9 so that its employees can vote. However, I cannot verify the authenticity of the information at the time of writing.

The Edge Media Group is giving the day off to staff members who are registered voters. And Edge employees who are registered to vote outside Kuala Lumpur or Selangor, chances are they be given an extra day off. Lucky us.

But here’s the thing. Instead of making life difficult for everybody – employers, employees and everyone else - why can’t May 9 be declared a public holiday? Or have polling on Saturday or Sunday as in previous elections. Senang cerita.

True, “cuti khas” or special holiday has been declared for schools. But then that’s because school premises are to be used as polling stations and what not.

The EC must have its reasons for deciding to hold GE14 on a weekday i.e. a working day but somehow deems it right to have nomination on a Saturday, i.e. April 28.

Anyway, despite the election laws making it easy for those working to vote, in reality it not that easy. Especially for those who need to take a break from working, go to vote and come back to work. It is unnecessary pressure for employees and employers as I see it. This would be the case for the banking sector, for example. So too for many other industries.

That apart, it’s not doing any good as far as image is concerned for the EC who are already accused by quite a number of Malaysians as being “BN-biased.” The EC has however said many times  that it is not.

Just access the internet and you will get people – lots of them - alleging that the commission’s decision is to “ensure” a low voter turn-out which they see, rightly or wrongly, as being “good for the BN”.

Many seem to agree with former Bersih chair Maria Chin Abdullah who said that setting May 9 as polling day “can only be perceived as another attempt by EC to disenfranchise voters and reduce the opportunities for overseas voters especially those from Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines who may have been planning to come home to vote”.

The general belief is those voters are coming home not to vote for BN.

Pakatan Harapan leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad views polling on Wednesday as “undemocratic” as it “will deprive some overseas Malaysians of their right to vote”.

Detractors are quick to remind us that in 1995 and 1999, the general elections were held on weekdays and the prime minister then was Mahathir.

But there was no furore then, certainly not as “noisy” or should I say “angry” as currently. Perhaps the opposition to the ruling coalition was not strong then? Or a BN victory was never in doubt back in the day?

However, there was not much difference between the overall voter turnout in elections held on weekends and weekdays, i.e. around 70%, on average.  But in 1995 and 1999, when elections were held on weekdays, the turnout was around 60%.

If it was wrong to hold the polls on weekdays back, then it’s wrong to hold the poll on a weekday now.

As we know, two wrongs don’t make a right – right?

Mohsin Abdullah is a contributing editor. He has covered politics for over four decades.