Mat Sabu: Bigger rally if fraud found in Election 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — PAS No. 2 Mohamad Sabu has vowed to lead another rally, bigger than the Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat demonstration in the city a fortnight ago, should Election 2013's results be found to be fraudulent, the party's online news site reported today.

The opposition leader from the Islamist party was reported by Harakah to have pledged a mass uprising will flood the national capital to protest a dishonestly elected government, while speaking at Bandar Tasik Puteri here last night.

"We promise, if the government does not step down, we will not go home," the PAS deputy president, popularly called Mat Sabu (picture), was quoted saying.

Mohamad had been one of the chief organisers of the opposition-backed Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat, a mammoth affair that provided a platform for the various grassroots movements that have sprouted over the past four years, to show their displeasure against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government's delay in instituting reforms, including clearing the electoral roll of dubious entries.

Thousands had swamped the landmark Stadium Merdeka in the city on January 13, regarded as among — if not the — biggest of public rallies to have been carried out since Election 2008.

An independent online research house, PoliTweet.org put the crowd at 150,000 people although the organisers claimed a 500,000-strong throng and police estimates sized it closer to 45,000.

The dual-language party news portal also reported Mohamad weighing in on the ongoing royal inquiry into Sabah's illegal immigrant problem that has sparked accusations that the ruling BN govenment had perverted the law and fast-tracked aliens in their citizenship process in a bid to bolster its hold on power through polls over the past 20 years.

"I am confident what happened in Sabah is what happened in Terengganu ahead of the 2004 elections and what is happening now in Selangor," Mohamad was reported saying.

The PAS-led Terengganu goverment had been toppled in Election 2004 after only a term in office.

The party has alleged they were robbed of power due to a sudden spurt of registered voters in the state that saw an unprecedented 90 per cent voter turnout for the 11th general elections, Harakah reported.

Pakatan Rakyat-led Selangor has also highlighted concern over a sharp spike in registered voters in the state.

The state government had last year carried out a study which showed the figures of newly-registered voters in state constituencies had steadily increased with every passing quarter, at 563,471, 600,406 and 625,210 respectively.

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim had said that the state could not trace 28 per cent of its 497,084 voters who were registered in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The PKR man also pointed to the incomplete electoral maps of five state assembly areas as justification for Selangor's worries.

But the Election Commission had said the controversial huge jump in first-time voters for Selangor is regular and to be expected as the country's richest state is a magnet for Malaysians seeking better jobs and lives.