It was reported in The Sun today that the DAP candidate for Bukit Bintang, Fong Kui Lun was leading by 4,705 votes after a tally of 105 boxes. However two ballot boxes which arrived at 11pm last night drastically reduced his advantage with MCA suddenly taking 4,465 votes. As such, there is to be a recount for this seat.

If what was reported is true, this must be the clearest evidence yet of vote manipulation. Why should these postal ballots arrive at an unearthly hour and who can these odd 4,000 postal voters be, voting as they are by post.

Given the ethnic composition of the constituency, it is unlikely that a majority of them are members of our armed forces. And given the law of averages, DAP should surely gain more than its 4,700-odd votes.

This begs the question of whether our main opposition leaders have been similarly 'targeted'. A plausible reason as to why Kit Siang and Karpal have survived is that they were not expected to win at all.

In order to have an objective view of the results of this general election, one should analyse the number of votes received by an incumbent candidate and whether they have seen a drop.

A drastic drop will translate into a certain loss. But an increase in turnout and a major vote gain for a challenger whilst the incumbent maintains his votes as compared to the last election, indicates to me the possibility of dubious box practices.