JOHOR BARU - Malaysia's Immigration Department will open all its counters in Johor for three days from May 8 to facilitate traffic flow, so that Malaysians could come home to vote and then turn back to Singapore, a senior official said on Sunday (April 22).
Malaysia's polling day is on Wednesday, May 9.
Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the department will be mobilising 350 officers to work during the general election, New Straits Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
Southern Johor is linked to Singapore by the Causeway in Woodlands, and the Tuas checkpoint.
He said the officers will be deployed to both the Sultan Iskandar Customs Immigration and Quarantine at the Causeway, and the Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ complex on the Tuas side.
"We do expect congestion as it is something that we are still working on especially during special occasions and festivities as traffic volumes might increase during this period," said Datuk Seri Nur Jazlan, as reported by Bernama news agency.
He said traffic congestion along both checkpoints is normal and does not happen on polling day only.
"I must stress here that the traffic congestions at both CIQs are not due to our Immigration workforce not carrying out their duty but due to the fact that vehicle volume entering Johor is extremely high," he said.
"Lets put it this way, if all counters are open, would it help to ease congestion? Sure, it might speed up the process but it would definitely not resolve the congestion that may extend to the highway later," he said.
The deputy home minister reminded Malaysians who are returning to vote to plan their trip carefully to avoid from getting caught in the traffic snarl that may occur before and after the polling day, Bernama reported.
Voting centres all over Malaysia are opened from 8am to 5pm on polling day.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's Road Transport Department (JPJ) has dismissed as untrue a viral social media message that claimed Singapore vehicles that are not registered under Malaysia's vehicle entry permit (VEP) system from May 1 will be blocked from entering Peninsular Malaysia.
The claims are alarming because more than 400,000 Malaysians work in Singapore, and thousands of them could be expected to drive their Singapore-registered cars into Malaysia to vote in their home towns.
If the claims are true, then many could be turned back at the two Malaysian checkpoints in Johor Baru or at Tanjung Kupang.
Malaysia announced in October last year that all foreign-registered vehicles entering Malaysia will soon require a RM25 (S$8.45) VEP tag, on top of existing road charges.
The VEP scheme was originally set to start in January this year, but was delayed because the authorities said more time was needed to fine-tune the system.
The VEP tag is fitted with RFID technology and will be integrated with a cashless payment system developed by Touch 'n Go, the operator which collects road charges.
The JPJ said in a statement on Sunday that there is no such compulsory registration being conducted, as the VEP system is undergoing tests.
"For your knowledge, the VEP is still undergoing tests and the system's stability and completeness need to be verified before full implementation.
"Therefore we would like to stress that at this time vehicles from outside the country or from Singapore won't be blocked although they are not registered yet under the VEP.
