Calling the site “ridiculous”, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng said his team had attempted to help over 100 people with their vaccine appointments, but due to multiple errors, fewer than 10 managed to get a slot.

“It is extremely devastating that the rakyat are treated like beggars, made to fight for the vaccine to save their lives while the people up there do not take the problem seriously,” he said.

He questioned why the government had not anticipated the issue of high online traffic, given that the same problem had occurred during the first and second rounds of registrations for the vaccine.

One million available slots were snapped up in less than an hour today, after registrations opened around 12.15pm. Lim noted that during that hour, the website consistently experienced errors.

“Whose fault is this? Khairy Jamaluddin (vaccine coordinating minister) needs to explain to the people,” he said, adding that there should have been an update on the number of registered people every five minutes.

Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said that while he was happy with the overwhelming response to the AstraZeneca vaccine, it also showed the people’s frustration at the country’s slow vaccination rate and the government’s failure to learn from its mistakes.

“What is more frustrating is that many have managed to convince hesitant (people) to sign up, but they have been let down by the system,” said Yii.

He added that the government should have decentralised the system and allocated different registration dates for each state to prevent the surge in traffic nationwide.

Yii also noted that many elderly citizens who registered earlier this week had yet to receive a confirmation on their appointments within the 48-hour notice period.

“This has to be properly addressed,” he said. “This is not how to instil confidence in the national immunisation programme.”