KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that tens of thousands of “dubious” voters may have been flown in to key states to boost the government’s chances in this weekend’s election, an accusation denied by the ruling coalition.
Anwar said the Prime Minister’s Office had been involved in arranging charter flights for voters supplied by national carrier Malaysian Airlines. He accused the government of flying at least 40,500 individuals since April 25 on chartered flights from the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak to mainland areas.
While Sabah and Sarawak are government strongholds, the mainland peninsula is home to several closely contested states, such as Selangor near Kuala Lumpur, which fell to the opposition in 2008.
“The timing of this surge in arrivals and its sheer size naturally raise the question of whether they have been transported here surreptitiously to vote in favour of the National Front,” Anwar said in an emailed statement.
A government spokesman denied the accusation. He said the flights were part of a normal “get out the vote” campaign and had been paid for by “friends” of the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition. The National Front faces a resurgent opposition led by Anwar, who was finance minister in the 1990s and later jailed for six years on corruption and sodomy charges he said were trumped up.
Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, secretary general of the United Malays National Organisation, which dominates the ruling coalition, said the flights were normal electoral practice.
“The flights in question were organised and paid for by friends of Barisan Nasional. They brought registered voters to their home districts so that they may vote in the upcoming election,” he said in a statement.
Reuters
