Perak Pakatan: 'Phantoms' caused our defeat
Foong Chee Wai & Lee Long HuiPublished: May 6, 2013 1:49 AM | Updated: May 6, 2013 3:29 AM
Dissatisfied with its narrow defeat in Perak, Pakatan Rakyat is mulling legal action to challenge the outcome of the state election.
Dissatisfied with its narrow defeat in Perak, Pakatan Rakyat is mulling legal action to challenge the outcome of the state election.
State coalition head Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin (right in photo) claimed that ‘phantom’ voters, as well as voters having been transferred to other constituencies, were major factors behind the loss of seats.
Of the 59 state seats, 31 went to BN and 28 to Pakatan. The DAP is now the biggest opposition party in the state with 18 seats in the bag.
Without indicating whether Pakatan accepts the results, Nizar said the coalition respects the choice of voters.
At a 2am press conference after the results were confirmed, he claimed that there are 30,524 unidentified voters in the state.
“Some constituencies were lost by a slim majority. Rules are not followed. Our competent candidates lost because of corruption and money (politics),” he alleged.
Perak BN chief Zambry Abd Kadir, however, dismissed any notion of fraud, describing the process as “good”.
He noted that anti-establishment sentiment was unexpectedly high, leading to BN losing most of the Chinese-majority seats that its candidates contested.
“We did not expect this much (of a swing in Chinese votes to Pakatan). But we have to accept the fact that’s the choice of the people,” he said at a press conference to claim victory for the BN.
“In general, we won the Malay-majority seats, (but lost in) seats where there is a higher percentage of Chinese voters.”
Citing the Lumut parliamentary seat as an example, Zambry said votes gained from the Pasir Panjang and Pangkor state seats were insufficient to offset the votes lost in Chinese-majority Sitiawan.
He said that the same thing had happened in the Kampar and Taiping parliamentary seats as well.
Zambry said that the BN’s immediate responsibility will be “to bring people together”.
“Look at the message sent to me, it’s quite a concern ... I have to work harder together with my brothers here to promote the politics of moderation, devoid any form of extremism as well as polarised politics,” he added.
“It doesn’t send a good signal in many ways because we are living in a multi-racial country where we need proper representation for everyone.”
State coalition head Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin (right in photo) claimed that ‘phantom’ voters, as well as voters having been transferred to other constituencies, were major factors behind the loss of seats.Of the 59 state seats, 31 went to BN and 28 to Pakatan. The DAP is now the biggest opposition party in the state with 18 seats in the bag.
Without indicating whether Pakatan accepts the results, Nizar said the coalition respects the choice of voters.
At a 2am press conference after the results were confirmed, he claimed that there are 30,524 unidentified voters in the state.
“Some constituencies were lost by a slim majority. Rules are not followed. Our competent candidates lost because of corruption and money (politics),” he alleged.
Perak BN chief Zambry Abd Kadir, however, dismissed any notion of fraud, describing the process as “good”.He noted that anti-establishment sentiment was unexpectedly high, leading to BN losing most of the Chinese-majority seats that its candidates contested.
“We did not expect this much (of a swing in Chinese votes to Pakatan). But we have to accept the fact that’s the choice of the people,” he said at a press conference to claim victory for the BN.
“In general, we won the Malay-majority seats, (but lost in) seats where there is a higher percentage of Chinese voters.”
Citing the Lumut parliamentary seat as an example, Zambry said votes gained from the Pasir Panjang and Pangkor state seats were insufficient to offset the votes lost in Chinese-majority Sitiawan.
He said that the same thing had happened in the Kampar and Taiping parliamentary seats as well.
Zambry said that the BN’s immediate responsibility will be “to bring people together”.
“Look at the message sent to me, it’s quite a concern ... I have to work harder together with my brothers here to promote the politics of moderation, devoid any form of extremism as well as polarised politics,” he added.
“It doesn’t send a good signal in many ways because we are living in a multi-racial country where we need proper representation for everyone.”
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