He said about 100,000 Paca passes have been provided for the agents representing the 247 candidates contesting for the parliamentary and state seats.

“Some people have complained that the EC had not issued an adequate number of Paca passes.

“Perhaps there was a miscommunication when the passes were distributed or some parties have requested for additional passes.

“Please take note that one candidate is eligible to one pass per channel and we may give an additional pass during a change of shift,” he said when met by reporters at the EC Office at Wisma Persekutuan here today.

According to Shafie, Johor EC personnel were on standby to assist candidates who have problems with the Paca passes.

He said this to reporters when commenting on complaints lodged by the opposition parties over insufficient number of passes issued to their candidates in the state.

Meanwhile, on the early voting which took place two days ago, he said 80%, or 26,800 early voters, came out to vote.

“We hope everything will run smoothly and peacefully on May 9 as was the situation during the early voting process,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shafie foresees that 80% of the 1.8 million registered voters in the state would cast their votes on Wednesday.

“The number of registered voters in the state has increased when compared to 1.5 million in the last election,” he said, adding that of the 1.8 million voters, about 250,000 were new voters.

Shafie added that some 30,000 EC officers would be stationed at the 3,500 polling stations statewide during the polling period from 8am to 5pm.