Anwar Ibrahim |
- Malaysia’s election scandals
- Anwar vows to reform Malaysia election system
- Disturbing questions surrounding GE13 polling
- PRESS STATEMENT: Fraudulent outcome of 13th General Election
- When Najib failed as a statesman
- BN victory or EC sorcery?
- Utusan inciting racial sentiments to hide GE13 fraud, says Anwar
- Tomorrow’s rally start of ‘fierce movement’ for polls reform, says Anwar
| Posted: 07 May 2013 08:21 AM PDT We discuss some of the vote irregularities being alleged as ruling coalition takes power for a record 13th time.One of Malaysia’s most hotly contested elections has returned the ruling coalition to power. Prime Minister Najib Razak had staked his political future on strengthening his alliance’s majority in Parliament. But his standing has been weakened – and he is promising to engage in dialogue with his political opponents. That has since been rejected – with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim pressing for a rally in two days to protest against the results. Al Jazeera's Florence Looi reported, "The narrower margin means Najib's administration has its work cut out for it. A youth leader in the coalition's dominant Umno party acknowledged that in a tweet on Monday. He wrote that the victory was only a reprieve and that a failure to deliver on the change that people want could mean the end for the National Front come the next general election"
There were two main personalities in this election, and Razak was one of them. He has has been Malaysia’s prime minister since 2009. At 23, he became the youngest member of parliament in Malaysian history and quickly rose to prominence. He is part of a political dynasty, with his father and uncle both former prime ministers. Under his leadership, the government repealed the controversial Internal Security Act. But critics say the new laws remain repressive and still allow for abuses. Najib also promised to reform pro-Malay policies, though many of them remain in place. Meanwhile, for Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition candidate, it has been a long journey that has taken him to both sides of Malaysia’s political divide. Anwar is a former deputy prime minister himself, serving under Mohathir’s government from 1993 to 1998. He was sacked after falling out with Mohathir over the need to crackdown on corruption. He has since battled charges for sodomy for which he was convicted, but eventually cleared. Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia, but Anwar has always maintained the cases were politically motivated. Anwar joined the opposition, leading it to an unprecedented showing at the 2008 polls. It was the start of the first serious challenge to ruling Barisan National’s grip on power. The opposition had capitalised on rising anger over corruption and oppressive tactics. So with pyrrhic victory for the government, new social schisms exposed and polarisation that runs deep in the Malaysian society, Inside Story with presenter Jane Dutton, unpacks the issues with guests: Nurul Izzah Anwar, a member of parliament for the opposition People Justice Party and the daughter of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim; Azman Ujang, former editor-in-chief of the government-sponsored Bernama news agency; and Bridget Welsh, a professor of political science from Singapore Management University and author of numerous publications on Malaysian politics.
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| Anwar vows to reform Malaysia election system Posted: 07 May 2013 04:41 AM PDT
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim vowed on Tuesday to lead a “fierce movement” to reform the country’s electoral system and challenge the results of an election he lost, starting with a rally of supporters this week.
Anwar has refused to accept the victory of the long-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in Sunday’s election, saying that the result was tainted by widespread fraud, including the use of foreign immigrants to vote for the governing alliance.
The opposition alliance won 89 seats in the country’s parliament compared to the BN’s 133, despite the ruling coalition receiving a minority of votes nationally for the first time in 44 years.
Wednesday’s rally “will be the beginning of a fierce movement to clean this country from election malpractices and fraud,” the 65-year-old former finance minister told a news conference.
The rally is planned to take place in a stadium with a capacity of about 40,000 people in Selangor state near Kuala Lumpur, which was retained by the opposition in state polls.
Anwar said the opposition had ample evidence to challenge the election result in up to 29 seats — enough to call into question the overall national result.
Malaysia’s government has rejected the opposition’s fraud claims, saying the result was in line with opinion polls that had shown the BN with a substantial advantage in recent weeks.
“The opposition has made a host of unsubstantiated allegations about the elections,” a Malaysian government spokesman said. | ||
| Disturbing questions surrounding GE13 polling Posted: 07 May 2013 04:29 AM PDT The GE13 results are in. BN won with a majority of 44 seats. If the results in 23 of those seats had been different, we would see a change of government. This result is the worst performance for BN in Malaysia’s history.
This piece, in a series analysing the election results, looks at the concerns raised regarding the electoral process and the potential impact these issues may have had on the final results. In analysing the fairness of any polls, one asks whether the irregularities in the process could have affected the final outcome. Were the problems enough to change which coalition would have formed government? These issues will be debated and assessed in the days and weeks ahead. Let me share some preliminary observations that suggest that in this election, some things appear not to be quite right. This was the longest wait for an election, and both sides were extremely active in registering new voters, especially in the urban areas where the party machinery was well honed. Even factoring in the more robust voter registration efforts, changes in electoral procedures to register people where they live rather than where they are from, population demographics, and possible housing developments in different seats, the increased numbers in the electoral roll are significantly not in line with historical patterns of voter registration. This out-of-line pattern is in every state, except Negri Sembilan. The figure that stands out in voter increase occurred from 2004 to 2008 in Sabah. The questions about the electoral roll in Sabah have been long standing, and are the subject of the ongoing royal commission of inquiry into immigrants. These increases from 2004 through 2008 are by any measure – huge – in places such as Liburan, where caretaker Chief Minister Musa Aman’s state seat is located, in Semporna, the seat of Shafie Apdal and in Ranau currently held by Ewok Ebin.
We also find that new voters have flooded states like Selangor, Pahang, Terengganu and Johor in GE13. The average increase in voters nationally between 2004 and 2008 was 8.2%. In the run-up to GE13, the voters registered doubled to 19.4%. The national and statewide averages however obscure the differences among different seats within states. It is clear that some seats have been special recipients of new voters. Much has been made of the 28% of new voters in Lembah Pantai. This seat is actually on the low side compared to others. Consider the whopping 61.5% increase in Tapah, recently re-won by BN, or Subang with 52% new voters, won by Pakatan with a larger majority this election but shaped heavily by Pakatan’s registration of new voters. A total of 90 seats, or 41% of all parliamentary seats, have more than 25% new voters. Many of these were in races with tight contests in 2008, and continued to have tight contests in GE13. The new voters have advantaged the opposition in urban areas, but benefitted the BN in rural and semi-rural areas or in states where the machinery of the opposition is comparatively weak, such as Johor. Such races also won by BN that had large number of voters include Cameron Highlands (20%), Pasir Gudang (39%) and Tebrau (45%) in Johor. While some of the increase in the latter two seats might be explained in part by development, bizarrely there are sharp increases in voting populations in the remote interior state of Pensiangan (33%) and remote coastal seat of Kota Marudu (32%) in Sabah. These abnormal high increases raise questions.
This is where the questions over the large number of unexplained voters grouped in bunches in places like Bachok (21% new voters and won by PAS with less than 1% margin) and Bukit Gantang (29% of new voters and won by PAS with 2% margin) come in. It appears that the localised remote placements of new voters may have had an impact. For example, the placement of 3,600 new voters in a remote Felda scheme occurred in Segamat, which was won by the BN with a 1,217 majority. The voting in this Felda scheme was over 90%, with one stream at 99%. In 2004, the voter turnout in this area was much lower. This spike pattern of voter turnout in particular polling stations was found in Terengganu in 2004, when the BN wrested back the state, and questions were raised at that time as well. Spike patterns out of line This GE13 spike in voter turnout at the local level is being witnessed in specific places across the country. With the national level of turnout at 85%, the spike patterns that are well out of line with historic patterns of voting behaviour raise questions, even accounting for the overall rise in participation and voter turnout.
Generally out-migration areas such as Perak and Pahang receiving large numbers of new voters does not conform with population patterns. Why are places with people leaving to work outside get sharp increases in voters? The lack of clear transparent explanations on why voters are registered in some areas in such high numbers this election, compared to past patterns in these areas, understandably raises questions. Many seats that were lost by the opposition or were in tight races have large number of new voters, including, including Tanah Merah (24%) and Balik Pulau (25%), although in some cases the opposition picked up or retained seats with large voter increases in these seats, such as Kota Raja (47%) and Kuala Nerus (25%), among others.
The Electoral Commission (EC) and electoral administration as a whole are facing a real trust deficit. A reliable electoral roll is essential for any fair elections. Repeatedly questions have been raised about the veracity of many new voters. Election watchdog Merap and others have time and again drawn attention to the questions of electoral roll integrity. Before the polls, these matters were essentially ignored or dismissed. To date, the scope of phantom voters and questionable placement is not fully known. Now the results themselves will show the impact at the local level. This is why the sharing of all results through the Borang 14 is essential in order to make a systematic and thorough assessment. Preliminary reviews of results are already raising red flags as they have shaped the outcomes at both the parliamentary and state levels. Early and postal voting
In this election, further questions emerged over the numbers and placement of these postal voters in different constituencies. Many tight races, such as Sibu, had increases in postal voters. In some cases, the list of names of new postal voters were reportedly not provided openly. Early voting, an estimated 240,000 people, is also a new addition for this election and being queried. Early voting includes many Malaysians within Malaysia, such as the wives of army officers and journalists who can vote before polls. There was not a clear distribution of the list of early voters provided nationally, and in some cases even individual candidates were not able to access the names of who were the postal and early voters. No clear explanation was given to why some constituencies received early voters and others did not. Importantly, this information was not properly shared so that it could be verified. Furthermore, there were unexplained instances when the numbers of early and postal voters increased. In Lembai Pantai, for example, the number stated was 200, but 600 showed up. How did this happen?
There were also reports of non-Malaysians being transported to the polling stations by buses and even flown in, some of these believed to be phantom voters. The scale and impact of these on the results is not yet clear, but given the combination of a non-transparent early and postal voting process in various locations and non-indelible ink issues on election day, and sightings of non-Malaysians in contentious seats, troubling questions are being raised. The close results make these issues and questions more salient. A total of 72 of seats (or 32%) were won by less than 10% margins of turnout. Twenty percent of seats, 44 seats, were won with less than a 5% margin. The closeness of these races could easily have come down to a few voters. These razor-thin margin seats were won by both sides, but given the questions raised about the process of voting in these close seats, they need to be carefully reviewed. To date, the total number of seats affected by either non-transparent new voter increases and early voting allocations and unexplained incidents of disenfranchisement appears to be more than the actual margin of victory for the BN. These reports need to be properly vetted and verified, but fundamental questions remained. A spoilt-vote victory Finally, this brings up the questions on the election night itself. There are queries surrounding the recounts and spoilt votes. How many recounts which overturned the results at the last moment were there? In Perak, for example, three state seats – three is a famous number in Perak – Alor Pongsu, Manjoi and Pangkor results were overturned at the last minute. Questions were also raised at Kamunting as well.
In the days ahead, a better sense of the numbers and recounts will emerge. With reports of sudden changes in the voting results such as Bentong and Labis, questions are being raised. Many people cannot understand how a result that was statistically a large margin ahead could be overturned. These need to be clarified, particularly in Bentong where the margin was larger. Part of the problem is that in some cases, the number of spoilt votes exceeded the actual majority in places where recounts took place. Here are some of the seats at the parliamentary level where this happened: Kuala Selangor, Cameron Highlands, Bachok, Bentong, Sungai Besar, Kota Merudu and Baram won by the BN and Sepang and Kuala Nerus won by the opposition. Another seat with high spoilt votes is Segamat, at 950. What distinguishes these close recounts from the famous cases of Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh losing in 1999 with more spoilt votes than the majority, is the process of the administration of the indelible ink in this election – before marking the ballot paper – thus staining the papers and contributing to higher spoilt votes.
It is important to be careful when reviewing the election results and not rush to judgement about what happened and why. It is also important to see the election holistically. The focus here has not touched on the use of money in the campaign, which was rampant, labelled 'bombing’ in Sabah, or the mainstream media reporting. The aim has been to raise the preliminary questions revealed in the results and the impact actual numbers of voters associated with the election. As the evaluation of the election moves forward, the call to answer these questions will only increase and intensify. Further study and analysis is essential. Nevertheless, from the non-indelible ink and spikes in voter turnout to being not allowed to vote, concerns with the electoral process itself are not sitting right with many in the public, and this is not just supporters on one side or another. Transparent and truthful answers are both needed and welcomed. | ||
| PRESS STATEMENT: Fraudulent outcome of 13th General Election Posted: 07 May 2013 02:52 AM PDT PRESS STATEMENT FOR RELEASE The recently concluded 13th General Election was marred with unprecedented electoral fraud. Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak and the Election Commission have chosen to ignore the wishes of the rakyat at their own peril despite their earlier pronouncements towards free and fair elections. This was despite massive popular support for the cause of clean and fair election. Pakatan Rakyat won the popular vote by a large margin (50.3%, compared to BN's 46.8%) confirming the mandate given to us. We won the election. This outcome also highlights that electoral fraud is the only way that BN and Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak can claim victory in the 13th General Election. Therefore, the Election Commission shall be held responsible for being complicit in the worst electoral fraud in our nation’s history. A fight for clean and fair election remains the single most important fight that any Malaysians should embrace. I will devote my time and utmost energy towards working with BERSIH and the people of Malaysia to ensure that a newly constituted and independent Election Commission shall be in place as soon as possible to rectify the electoral fraud that has taken place. Our conscience does not allow us to accept election results conjured through fraud and cheating. My heart is with every Malaysian who does not accept these results. I will work towards a national consensus to question the legitimacy of the BN's government achieved through such electoral fraud. The movement for change is unstoppable. The simple demand of the rakyat for a clean and fair election to ensure our elected government is accountable, transparent and incorruptible will continue to echo loudly in spite of the rigged 13th General Election. I shall address the rakyat for the first time post the general election on Wednesday, 8 May 2013 at Kelana Jaya Stadium in Petaling Jaya, Selangor at 8:30 pm. Information about the event is here. I call upon as many Malaysians to join hands and express our rejection and disgust at the unprecedented electoral frauds committed by Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak and the Election Commission. ANWAR IBRAHIM | ||
| When Najib failed as a statesman Posted: 07 May 2013 02:51 AM PDT Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak likes to brand himself as a perfect mixture between a “politician” and a “statesman”. There is no denying Najib’s political wit. After all, politics has been all about survival, and despite many lingering questions over his own integrity, Najib has survived long enough to become the premier of the country for another five years, barring an anticipated leadership challenge. However, the measure of a statesman can be defined easily by one’s ideology and public statements, and that is something Najib has to reflect upon and admit – at least in the confines of his own office – that he has failed miserably at.
While talking about a process of national reconciliation – whatever that was supposed to mean – Najib followed up immediately in the next sentence by blaming the result on the Chinese community, and even more dangerously, appearing to brand the opposition movement as a result of “extremist ideology”. But this is not the first time Najib had heftily contradicted himself or failed to act with any form of 'civility', a term that he likes to use liberally without even understanding the real etiquette of civility. Ever since assuming premiership four years ago, Najib trailblazed into Pakatan Rakyat-led states to make a case for the states of Penang, Selangor and Kelantan to be returned to the BN fold. And he went about it in the most condescending way imaginable. Dodging any public dialogue, forum or debate on policies, he stood on the comfort of BN-backed platforms and threw baseless allegations and wilfully distorted facts about Pakatan administrations – he was one of those politicians making a cacophony of noise with desperate hopes that his shouts will muffle out any dissent or counter arguments. He was busy telling the people that only BN can do a proper job in these states. He made assessments that Pakatan is not fit to lead these wealthy states, without outlining any concrete reasons. BN knows best? This man was telling the people that BN knows best. But this was the same man that during a national day gathering said that the “the days of the government knows best is now over”. If he can’t see his own hypocrisy, Najib must be as delusional as ever in branding himself as a statesman. And when it dawned upon him on the wee hours of May 6 that he failed to obtain a two-thirds majority – a promise he made to Umno and BN without as much as assessing the ground sentiments – and that he failed miserably in Selangor despite being the elections director for his party there, Najib turned his ire on the Chinese community. After spending four years condescending the people for having chosen Pakatan in 82 parliamentary seats, he is now blaming the people for having voted for Pakatan in 89 parliamentary seats. I was one of those who was expecting that regardless of the election outcome, there would be civility and magnanimity in the course of conversation in the political arena if BN was denied a two-thirds majority for a second time. It was understandable for the old guards to spend time harping on minor slip-ups for the 2008 election results and continue believing they are given the eternal honour of managing the country. But being denied a two-thirds for a second time means they needed to look for a new excuse – or even better, a full acceptance that a two-party system has emerged in Malaysia and must be embraced. But Najib, known as a moderate leading a flock of right-wing groups, walked straight into the annals of right-wing extremism by cooking up an excuse that will now last and linger on for months and maybe years to come – that the Chinese had turned against BN because they have been taken in by promises and even suggested “extremist ideologies” that must be put aside.
Racial tension and racial divide will only play into the hands of Umno, MIC and MCA. It will make them relevant again. And with MCA’s refusal to take up government posts and party president Chua Soi Lek’s (left) statement that the result would mean the birth of a “two-race system”, it is clear that the BN leaders are training their guns on the Chinese community, even laced with a sense of vengeance. This is not good for the nation – not after an election that should have officially heralded a new age for a two-party system. Instead of focusing, thanking and be grateful to the 47 percent of the population that had voted for BN and helped in its course to attain 133 parliamentary seats – Najib focused on the other divide of the population that voted against him – and worse, failed to respect their choices. He started his new premiership by making enemies, and not friends. Najib has just missed the bus to become a statesman. And no matter how much he does to repair the damage over the next five years, this statement – even though it was uttered with finesse and some sense of intellectual ambiguity – will be remembered. | ||
| Posted: 07 May 2013 02:50 AM PDT Malaysia’s 13th general election will come to be known as the 'Great Umno-BN heist’. Electoral larceny on this scale has to be seen to be believed that it can still happen in a wired world, with its perpetrators apparently confident that they can pull it off and expect the public to acquiesce in the travesty. Sure, faith in the credulity of the hoi polloi is the hallmark of authoritarians. The latter feel they can get Joe Public to believe anything they put out. Long inured to this practice and unable to shed its reliance on its efficacy, the Umno-BN government has retooled a famous line from Humpty Dumpty (“A word is anything I say it means”) to sound something like this: “Our version of what took place is all there is to it” when faced with public scepticism about any action of theirs.
That surreal reversal was allowed to pass into the steadily accumulating lore of 'Malaysia Boleh’, a phenomenon that owes its infamy to the 22-year rule of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which was witness to an astonishing number of incidents that happened on his watch which beggared belief. The top of this range was his one-time deputy Anwar Ibrahim’s abrupt fall from grace as anointed successor to corrupt and deviant ingrate. In fact, these sudden reversals or volte-faces had left a once poorly-informed public – this prior to the emergence and popularity of the Internet – groping as to what to belief whenever something weird happens. But since the general election of March 2008, this deficit has been repaired with a surfeit of stuff on the net, leaving Internet-connected Malaysians lagging only by a little in figuring out what is being concealed when government minders want their version of what has happened to be believed. A minority government Right now, the government wants the public to believe they have pulled off a victory in the polls last Sunday. An Internet-saturated public knows that not even the government believes in its own make-believe. A straight face is hard to sustain in the teeth of the results of the vote as put out by an Election Commission by midnight on Sunday. Malaysian voters, who turned out to discharge their civic obligation in unprecedented numbers last Sunday – an astonishing 85 percent whereas the previous turnout had been 76 percent – are now asked to believe that 5.6 million ballots for Pakatan Rakyat could garner 89 parliamentary seats only.
And why not!? After all, we have been asked, in the last 15 years of our political history, to believe in the authenticity of astounding reversals in the public image of figures that have run afoul of the powers-that-be. These reversals – their suddenness, the shock they cause and the nature of the obloquy the targets are subjected to – have paved the way to the point where the public is asked to believe in official versions of events (and even non-events) that recall the mindset behind a line from a famous Hollywood movie: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Well, at least myth-making in Malaysian politics is open-sourced in its inspiration, taking its cues from prototypes ranging from the baleful Dr Goebbells to the benign John Ford. Thus, in the next several weeks, the sheer disparity of a 5.6 million gross of the total vote, from an astonishing 80 percent voter turnout (11-million votes were cast), having yielded only 89 seats to Pakatan whereas the 5.2 million take of the BN’s has afforded them 133 seats is going to be the focus of BN’s capacity for fable generation to transform the incredible into the believable. Crass gerrymandering True, ours is a system where the weightage given to rural constituencies is such that one vote in a seat like Gua Musang, in Kelantan, is worth three in places like Kapar, in Selangor. The BN tends to do well in rural seats more than in urban ones and so enjoys an advantage over the urban-popular opposition. But this is not enough to justify the upshot of a 133-seat collection on a 5.2 million take of the total vote by BN when compared to an 89-seat haul from a 5.5 million gross by Pakatan Rakyat.
Though this constitutionally-mandated apportionment of the more-weightage-to rural-seats rule has been distorted under Umno-BN’s rule to bolster its electoral prospects, the scope of this skewering is not so bad as to sustain credibility in lopsided hauls that make a farce of the one-man-one-vote tenet of democratic choice. The currency and stock markets have surged on the back of news of the BN’s victory, and the government can be expected to leverage on that good news, but elsewhere there is a mood of somnolence that suggests this is one result that reeks of the myth-making of 'Malaysia Boleh’. It is a mood that says 'tak boleh‘ ('no go’) to so immanent a farce. | ||
| Utusan inciting racial sentiments to hide GE13 fraud, says Anwar Posted: 07 May 2013 02:48 AM PDT
Umno's Utusan Malaysia is fomenting racial sentiments to cover up alleged vote rigging in Election 2013, PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today. The Malay broadsheet front-paged the question "Apa lagi Cina mahu (What else do the Chinese want?) in what appeared to be an attempt to shape the results of the 13th general election, which saw Barisan Nasional's (BN) worst-ever performance, by pitting Chinese votes vs Malay ones. "The big mistake that an illegitimate government makes is to deceive people in the election and to whip up racial sentiments to cover up their misdeeds," said Anwar (picture) at a packed press conference at the PKR headquarters here. "When Datuk Seri Najib spoke of reconciliation, that I accept, but when he talked about a 'Chinese tsunami', that I reject," he added, referring to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Analysts have said data from voting trends showed that the outcome of Election 2013 was not simply the result of a "Chinese tsunami" as Najib has claimed, but a major swing in the urban and middle-class electorate that saw a widening of the urban-rural gap. But Utusan Malaysia, a newspaper that has represented the right-wing forces aligned largely with former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, published several stories today blaming the Chinese for dividing Malaysia. In the wrap-around front page today, Utusan Malaysia published a number of photographs which allegedly showed Chinese-looking youths wearing black to protest the results of the election. The photographs are believed to have been lifted from the Internet and were also used by many right-wing bloggers aligned with Dr Mahathir. Anwar accused Umno today of playing a "sentiment game", pointing out thatUtusan Malaysia's front page was approved by the BN lynchpin. DAP publicity chief Tony Pua said yesterday that Pakatan Rakyat's (PR) improved performance in Selangor was due to the "massive increase in Malay support", particularly in the semi-rural belt of the country's most industrialised state. DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has also noted that PR won several Malay-majority federal seats like Kuala Terengganu, Alor Star, Lumut and Sepang. BN won Election 2013 with a smaller majority than the previous election and failed to retake Selangor and Penang, the two most developed states in the country. | ||
| Tomorrow’s rally start of ‘fierce movement’ for polls reform, says Anwar Posted: 07 May 2013 02:45 AM PDT
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today his rally tomorrow would be the beginning of a "fierce movement" to fight for free and fair elections amid reports of vote-rigging in Election 2013. The PKR de facto leader, who had led thousands in the "Reformasi" street demonstrations in 1998, also called on Malaysians to wear black or use black insignia to protest alleged electoral fraud in Election 2013. "This shall be a beginning for a fierce movement to clean this country from election malpractices and fraud, for there is no opportunity for renewal without a clean and fair election," said Anwar at a packed press conference at the PKR headquarters here. "I shall address fellow Malaysians tomorrow at Kelana Jaya Stadium at 8.30pm fully dressed in black," he added. Anwar noted that the results in some 30 federal constituencies were in doubt, thus affecting the legitimacy of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government that was formed with just 133 seats, 21 seats more than the 112 seats required to win a simple majority. Anwar said a taskforce headed by PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli was gathering evidence on electoral fraud. "His team will match the proof against an empirical analysis of the specific constituency result to highlight the constituencies whose result is in dispute," he said. BN won Election 2013 with a smaller majority than the previous election, ceding an additional seven federal seats to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) that took home 89 seats in total. Black profile pictures have popped up on Facebook in the wake of Sunday's polls as Malaysians took to the social networking site to protest reports of vote-buying, phantom voters and washable indelible ink in the 13th general election. Some Facebook users have also sported profile pictures with the words "Democracy is dead", while others have flooded US President Barack Obama's Facebook page with requests to intervene following the disputed results of Election 2013. When asked if he could guarantee that there would be no street protests, Anwar said: "Talk to the people, ask them to guarantee." Anwar said the people's sentiments about being "robbed" of the country's legitimate government were growing stronger. He also pointed out that the Election Commission (EC) has failed to implement polls watchdog Bersih's eight demands for a free and fair election. "In fact, the EC could not even implement a simple use of indelible ink and the chairman fumbled miserably to provide a logical explanation for the failure," said Anwar. "It is therefore a dictate of our conscience to reject the election result until it is rectified and a reasonable justification is provided by the EC," he added. Bersih has similarly refused to recognise the BN government until it verified reports of vote-rigging. |
For the first time, the incumbent government has lost the popular vote nationally (in 2008, it was only in the peninsula). The BN coalition has still managed to hold on to power.
Yet, after 2008, while the numbers have dropped, there is still on average 21% new voters in Sabah seats, a high number not in line with demographic trends. Migration appears to continue be a factor shaping voter numbers in Sabah in this GE13, despite calls to tighten the flows.
The placement of new voters is even more intriguing when studying the actual polling stations results. Many new voters are concentrated in more less populated areas within constituencies, often in rural and semi-rural seats.
Another pattern in the placement of new voters beyond tight races involves prominent leaders getting large shares of new voters, such as Najib Razak’s own seat Pekan with 38% new voters, or Rompin represented by Jamaluddin Jarjis at 29% new voters. It remains unclear why these largely rural constituencies would have such large voter increases.
This issue of voter registration and voter turnout levels needs further study, with more information on who are these new voters and their pattern of voting. The fact is that the polling station results will show the spikes at the local level and careful study will tell us statistically the impact of these new voters on electoral outcomes.
There have been improvements in recent years over postal voting involving polling agent access to this process in many locations. Yet, even with these improvements, questions about whether postal voting is fair and accurate remain.
Given the reality that the indelible ink was in many cases 
The need for transparency at the final count is essential for a fair election. When the EC asks people to leave and there are new ballot boxes seen outside of a polling station, as was reported in Lembah Pantai, there are questions. It is not fully clear what exactly happened with the recounts in Perak and elsewhere – as there were numerous recounts nationally this election – but the climate of distrust that has permeated the assessment of the election process raises doubts.
This pattern of higher spoilt votes than actual margins of victory was also replicated at the state level as well in many areas, where only a few seats mattered for who should win state power. The process of administering the ink appears to have had an impact on the results in some areas.
Anyone who had followed Malaysian politics for long enough knows what he was referring to – though the million dollar question is whether Najib knows the kind of conversation he is creating with his statement.
This has led to some of the more bizarre incidents in the public record such as the reversal, within 24 hours in July 2008, of the contents of a private eye’s statutory declaration on the alleged shenanigans of then deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in connection with a famous murder case.
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