STOLEN VICTORY: Pakatan to launch a slew of legal initiatives including election petitions

Malaysia's Opposition,which failed to topple Prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno-BN government in an election marred by fraud accusations and millions of complaints of indelible ink that could be washed off within the hour, will launch a two-pronged legal offensive to reclaim a victory they say was "stolen" from them.

Apart from election petitions to be filed in about 20-odd constituencies where the winning margin was less than 5 percent, the Pakatan Rakyat led by Anwar Ibrahim are preparing a series of lawsuits to fight "overall fraud".

"Election petitions can only be filed after the results have been gazetted and we have 21 days to file after the gazette. We are preparing the evidence now because once it is gazetted, we have very little time," PKR vice president Tian Chua told a press conference on Wednesday.

"However we are not only filing because election petitions are very limited but we are also working with our lawyers and friends to file more general issues about bribery and constitutional matters that have been violated by the EC and caretaker government. So, it's not just limited to a few constituencies where we will file the election petitions, we will be challenging overall fraud by the caretaker government and the Election Commission."

His colleague, Fuziah Salleh who is the Kuantan MP, was also at the presser.

'Indelible' ink cornerstone that crumbled

The PKR leaders demanded that the Election Commission explain to the public why, despite its assurances to the contrary, the indelible ink applied to voters during the May 5 general election could disappear when the ink was supposed to stay on voters' index finger for a few days.

"I would again demand the EC chairman tells us what exactly is the content of the ink and I dare him to to repeat that it contains any trace of silver nitrate," said Tian, referring to the chemical which gave the ink its long-lasting quality.

Malaysia used indelible ink, meant to prevent cheaters from voting twice, for the first time during its recent 13th general election. As the indelible ink was to have been the cornerstone of the EC's promised reforms to clean up Malaysia's corrupt electoral system, its failure and the suspect quality of the ink has become the object of public ridicule.

The shock discovery has tarred the integrity of the polls, boosting the Opposition's claims of widespread electoral fraud and irregularities.

Till now there has been no response from either the EC or Prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno-BN government which claimed a 133-seats victory over the Pakatan Rakyat's 89 seats.

"The EC chairman has blatantly lied on the issues of indelible ink. He has not been consistent, he has insisted the indelible ink would be kept in a secret location and the color known only to 3 people. Now he says it is kept in police stations and if it is police stations, more than 3 people would know. So we want to know who are these 3 people," said Tian.

Tian, the MP for Batu, was referring to one of the issues in a long slew of complaints raised by polling agents, contestants and voters since the controversial election was balloted last Sunday.

Malaysia Chronicle