‘Campaign strategy did not cause defeat’

Pakatan leaders rebut the Malaysian Election Observers Network claim that they lost because they failed to reach out to BN’s rural vote bank.

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Rakyat lost the general election due to electoral fraud and an uneven playing field, and not because of its campaign strategy, leaders of the opposition pact insisted today.

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli said the party’s campaign strategy played a small role in the general election, and what tipped the polls in Barisan Nasional’s favour was rampant “money politics, bribery, access to media and phantom voters”.

The Pandan MP was responding to the Malaysian Election Observers Network’s (Meonet) statement that Pakatan’s loss was solely due to its inability to penetrate BN’s rural vote bank, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak.

“There is no problem with our campaign strategy in East Malaysia. Out of the 27 seats there, we lost five seats within a 5% margin, and received complaints of irregularities in another three,” said Rafizi.

“So it’s not fair to say that we didn’t penetrate Sabah and Sarawak. We had huge odds stacked against us – limited resources, massive vote buying, no media access – so taking all this into consideration, we were able to rally enormous support,” he added.

Rafizi also said it was “not right and naïve” for anyone on the ground to claim that Pakatan failed to engage with local chieftains in East Malaysia.

Meonet chief Ong Boon Keong told FMT yesterday that in contrast to Pakatan, BN effectively engaged the local chieftains and power brokers in the two states to secure the rural votes.

“The difference between how Pakatan and BN engaged with the local chiefs is that BN relied on widespread money politics and bribery – unless he’s calling for Pakatan to do the same thing: offer money and projects,” said Rafizi sarcastically.

“Not only is that election fraud, but it is not ethically right nor fair. So for election observers to ignore that fact is not fair,” he added.

Campaign strategy the ‘least factor’

Rafizi slammed Meonet for being too “one sided” in its report and “conveniently” ignoring the fact that BN engaged in “bribery and intimidation” to amass votes.

“Any worthwhile observer must look at everything in totality, not just taking one or two things independent of other factors and make such conclusions,” he said.

“Unless we are living in an ideal world free of electoral fraud and with equal access to media, then yes, we can blame our loss on our campaign strategy,” he added.

He related how, while campaigning in Sabah and Sarawak, he discovered that locals there were provided with satellite television with “dedicated channels for propaganda”.

“What kind of campaign can we even conduct when we have unequal access to media? This means we have to knock the door of every home, while at the same time we have no huge financial sources like BN does.

“So the campaign strategy as far as Sabah and Sarawak is concerned is the least factor in winning the election. The biggest factor is access to media, vote-buying and intimidation as well as phantom voters.”

Rafizi said he received vast evidence of such fraud, and also rebutted Meonet’s claim that electoral irregularities only occurred in urban constituencies.

Meanwhile, DAP publicity chief Tony Pua conceded that while campaign strategies played a role in determining polls victory, the opposition was hampered by the “unfair electoral process”.

“We have no equal access to media, there is vote-buying by BN in rural areas, use of government machinery by BN to campaign for elections,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP told FMT.

“Whatever strategy we employ in the face of such circumstances will not be able to overcome these problems,” he added.

He stressed that without gerrymandering, campaign fraud, corruption and electoral fraud, Pakatan would have won the elections.