KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 — Just minutes after the Election Commission announced the polling dates for the 15th general election (GE15), voters are seeing an incredible surge in prices of flight tickets during the election weekend.

Flight-booking websites have been swamped following the long-awaited announcement of the polling dates. Trouble is, airline tickets have become way more expensive.

"Kuala Lumpur to Kuching for one person is almost RM500 using Malaysia Airlines. For AirAsia, it's almost RM720. How to balik like this?" Twitter user Syaherra, 28, tweeting at @ierrapaisan told Malay Mail.

She was planning to return to her hometown from November 18 to 20.

Asked if still will return to vote, she said: "Yes, of course I will balik! My first time voting and I would like to see better growth for Malaysia."

A check by Malay Mail found that direct economy flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur cost RM2,376 on AirAsia and RM744 on Malaysia Airlines during the election weekend.

Meanwhile, tickets between Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru cost RM495.92 on AirAsia and RM647.22 on Malaysia Airlines.

Another Twitter user @IcedNyior, shared her sister's experience of purchasing a ticket from Johor Baru to Kuching, where she was met with an error when she tried to check out.

After the error code, she was directed to a new price of RM727.44 instead of the initial RM359.42.

"She just paid the RM700+ amount. Gotta do what we can to exercise our right to vote," she told Malay Mail when contacted.

Malaysians online have also raised the question of possible delays with AirAsia flights that could prevent them from voting at their polling centres on time.

Malay Mail has contacted AirAsia for further comment.

Previously, the Transport Ministry advised the Malaysian Aviation Commission to set a ceiling price for airline tickets to ensure that voters can exercise their democratic right without having to bear additional costs.

Earlier today, the Election Commission officially announced that early polling will be held on November 15, nomination day on November 5, while polling day is on November 19.