KUALA LUMPUR: The Prime Minister's Office has denied any involvement in the opposition's claim that Malaysians, as well as, foreigners are being flown in to the peninsula to vote in Sunday's polls.

In a brief statement, a government spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister's office denies any involvement in these flights. The Election Commission has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the electoral system is stronger than ever, and the elections are free and fair."

Malaysia Airlines has also denied allegations that it was deploying chartered flights to transport phantom voters for the polls.

"Malaysia Airlines wishes to clarify that all chartered flights in the national carrier's system are commercial chartered flights," it said in a statement.

Earlier Thursday, Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim claimed that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was responsible for chartering flights for an extremely large group of foreigners to fly in to Peninsular Malaysia from Sabah and Sarawak.

He claimed that they would be ferried around the various constituencies in the peninsula to vote in favour of Barisan Nasional.

He also claimed to have a copy of an email correspondence between top executives in an airline company, which implied that officers working in the PMO were behind the charters.

In a press conference at the party headquarters here, Anwar claimed the chartered flights, which started since April 25, were as many as 16 a day, departing from Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Miri and Sibu.

"Based on our calculations, as many as 4,500 people are being transported via the in-bound flights into KLIA each day.

"This means at least 40,500 dubious individuals have and are still entering via this method of chartered flights via KLIA," he claimed.

He added that this did not include the sudden surge in arrivals of foreigners from Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan and Myanmar through Bukit Kayu Hitam as well as those from Indonesia through Port Klang and other coastal entry points.

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