Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional won a bitter and disputed election Sunday, taking 133 seats in the 222-member national parliament to 89 for the opposition Pakatan Rakyat while at the same time the three-party opposition appears to have narrowly won the popular vote by a 50-49 margin.
As expected, gerrymandering and misallocation of seats provided the Barisan with its margin of victory in the parliament -- what William Case, a professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies and former director of the Southeast Asia Research Center at City University of Hong Kong, called "grievous forms of gerrymandering and malapportionment, a partisan use of civil servants and state resources, extensive vote-buying, off-the-cuff development grants, a badly distorted electoral roll, a pliable election commission, a misrepresentative first-past-the-post system, an absurdly abused media, and a worrying usage of goons."
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim held a press conference following the vote, which recorded a historic turnout of more than 80 percent, to say "irregularities" had cost his Pakatan coalition numerous seats which it lost by narrow margins. There was considerable change as Anwar's coalition dominated urban areas, with Pakatan Rakyat picking up 21 seats from the Barisan but losing 15, an indication of the dramatic swing among Chinese voters away from the Barisan.
Anwar said he would refuse to accept the verdict unless the Election Commission deals with widespread complaints of voter fraud, which is highly unlikely since the election commission is a unit of the prime minister's office. Full story...
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As expected, gerrymandering and misallocation of seats provided the Barisan with its margin of victory in the parliament -- what William Case, a professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies and former director of the Southeast Asia Research Center at City University of Hong Kong, called "grievous forms of gerrymandering and malapportionment, a partisan use of civil servants and state resources, extensive vote-buying, off-the-cuff development grants, a badly distorted electoral roll, a pliable election commission, a misrepresentative first-past-the-post system, an absurdly abused media, and a worrying usage of goons."
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim held a press conference following the vote, which recorded a historic turnout of more than 80 percent, to say "irregularities" had cost his Pakatan coalition numerous seats which it lost by narrow margins. There was considerable change as Anwar's coalition dominated urban areas, with Pakatan Rakyat picking up 21 seats from the Barisan but losing 15, an indication of the dramatic swing among Chinese voters away from the Barisan.
Anwar said he would refuse to accept the verdict unless the Election Commission deals with widespread complaints of voter fraud, which is highly unlikely since the election commission is a unit of the prime minister's office. Full story...
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