Activists say rigging stopped opposition winning M'sia vote

Activists say rigging stopped opposition winning M'sia vote

Posted by kasee
Monday, 17 March 2008, MT

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - MALAYSIAN election reform activists on Monday called for an investigation into March 8 polls, saying the opposition would have won outright if voting was clean and fair.

The Barisan Nasional coalition's near-total domination of national and state politics ended in the general elections, with the opposition seizing more than two-thirds of parliamentary seats and four more states.

The unprecedented gains came despite widespread claims of fraud and vote-rigging, and fury over the cancellation of plans to use indelible ink to prevent multiple balloting.

'We are calling for a royal commission to investigate the electoral process,' said Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) leader Sivarasa Rasiah.

'Just because the opposition won big does not mean the election was free and fair,' he said.

Bersih, an alliance of opposition parties and civil society groups, organised several rallies to highlight claims that Malaysia's electoral process is rigged.

The opposition alliance of the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP), the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's Keadilan won 82 of the 222 seats in parliament.

'We would have had an outright win if this were a free and fair election,' said Keadilan's Sivarasa, who was elected to parliament.

'To win another 30 seats (to form a majority in parliament) all we needed was just another 56,000 votes,' he said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said ahead of the polls that Malaysians would be denied a free-and-fair vote, accusing the government of muzzling the opposition and manipulating the electoral process. - THE STRAITS TIMES