May 9, the date to cast ballots, also falls on a day when school is in session.

The decision has not gone down well with many opposition leaders and activists, despite the law making it mandatory for employers to allow workers time off to exercise their voting right.

They say the mid-week voting means those who work far from where they are registered to vote will find it difficult to go back.

Some, like those who work in the Klang Valley but vote in Terengganu, may be hard-pressed to commute even if Wednesday is declared a public holiday.

Others will be worse affected, like Sarawakians and Sabahans, most of whom cannot make a one-day trip back home to cast their votes.

This is not the first time that polling day will be held on a workday. In 1994 and 1999, polling day fell on a Monday.

But critics say polling day on Wednesday will make it harder for people to prepare ahead, as it is sandwiched between two working days of the week in most parts of Malaysia.

In contrast, polling on Monday would allow a voter to prepare ahead during the weekend.

Kelantan Amanah leader Husam Musa said the tens of thousands of Kelantanese who work in Kuala Lumpur would be forced to miss at least three working days if they plan to return to vote.

“(They) need at least a day to go back to Kelantan, on polling day, and another day to return to Kuala Lumpur,” said Husam, whose party is also banking on support from the more urban Kelantan diaspora.

He said declaring polling day on May 9 was not in the spirit of the Election Offences Act 1954.

“Section 25(1) of the act states: every employer shall, on polling day, allow to every elector in his employ a reasonable period for voting.

“Three days’ public holiday is a reasonable period in keeping with the spirit of this act,” he added.

For activist Syed Azmi Alhabshi, the mid-week voting will deny family time to Malaysians, who treat polling day and election night as a family affair.

“I don’t understand who made this decision,” he said in a Facebook response.

“But I sympathise with the person behind this decision, because either he has no family, or he stays among his family members, or just could not bother about family, or just couldn’t care less about Malaysian family life.”

Syed Azmi said even travelling from Muar or Ipoh to Kuala Lumpur, which could take between two and three hours on the road, needed a one-day buffer.