two-thirds majority By GILLIAN WONG,
AP
Posted: 2008-03-05 04:48:48
SINGAPORE (AP) - Only massive election fraud would prevent Malaysia's
opposition from denying the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority in
upcoming general elections, Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar
Ibrahim said Wednesday.
"The support for the opposition, particularly the rise in the last two
weeks, is phenomenal," Anwar, leader of the opposition People's Justice
Party, told reporters in Singapore, where he earlier spoke at a risk
management conference.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's National Front coalition
is expected to easily return to power in Saturday's vote, but politicians
are waging intense battles over key parliamentary seats that could
determine whether the coalition retains its overwhelming majority.
The opposition hopes to deny the National Front a two-thirds majority - a
symbolic, psychological benchmark because the coalition has won at least
that in every election in the past 50 years except in 1969.
The three main opposition parties, including Anwar's, have agreed to field
only one candidate in each constituency to avoid splitting the opposition
vote.
"It's very difficult, unless you have massive vote rigging, for the ruling
coalition ... to have a two-third majority," Anwar said, citing opinion
polls and government intelligence. "I'm absolutely certain of that."
Abdullah and other National Front officials have repeatedly voiced
confidence that they will retain their two-thirds majority, and say they
don't consider Anwar a serious threat.
Anwar is ineligible to contest the vote because a previous corruption
conviction bars him from politics until April 2008. But he said
opposition campaigns were making "major inroads" and claimed the ruling
coalition had resorted to intimidation and a smear campaign to erode
growing opposition support.
He said the Election Commission's decision to scrap a plan to use
indelible ink to prevent multiple voting reflected the ruling coalition's
anxiety over escalating support for the opposition.
Anwar said a number of election irregularities have already been
uncovered, including evidence that electoral rolls were being padded with
the names of deceased voters and that hundreds of voters were being
registered under single addresses.
The Election Commission recently acknowledged that more than 8,600 people
above 100 years old remained on the voter rolls, but insisted it could
not remove a name unless it had proof that the person had died. It has
repeatedly denied opposition claims of voting fraud.
The National Front won 199 of 219 parliamentary seats, or 91 percent of
seats, in 2004 polls, but has acknowledged it will likely win fewer seats
this time because of nationwide concerns about rising inflation, crime and
racial and religious tensions.
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