E Contrario

The votes on 28 April showed that KeADILan was unable to capture the Ijok state seat in the by-election. The final count showed that BN won the seat with a majority of 1850 votes.

No doubt the result was a disappointment. Many voters I met, especially those in town area, were convinced that the election had been rigged. Our observation found a lot of irregularities.

Despite the heavy shelling of BN machinery, KeADILan was able to secure 40.67% support. In fact KeADILan had gained about 500 votes increase compared to 2004 General Election. Of course we believe that our actual support should be much higher if we eliminate phantom voters and fraudulences.

It is incredible that the voters turn-out rate had a big 10% leap to 82%. In the previous elections, the average voters turn-out was about 70%. There was an extra 1000 people voting in this by-election.

The electoral roll provided lots of room for foul play. We discovered a sizeable numbers of voters are in fact dead, including 33 persons who seemed to live beyond 100 year-old. KeADILan is convinced that the flaws in the roll were deliberate and designed to facilitate phantom voters.

Upon careful scrutinizing, our technical team also exposed that 1187 names were removed from 2004 list. In the eve of by-election, the new electoral roll had some 1000 new voters added in. Nonetheless, the list was not displayed for public inspection before it was formally gazetted.

Besides rigging the ballot box, vote-buying was also rampant. The BN paid between RM500-2000 to solicit votes. This had not included funds for schools, places of worship, associations, etc. The BN easily spent up to RM100 millions in this by-election.

Of all the elections I participated, this would be the dirtiest I had experienced. I had also not seen such intense violence and aggression in all previous elections. It had been quite depressing when our supporters constantly harassed and assaulted.

As soon as the nomination was over, the race was immediately turned into a battle between Umno and KeADILan. MIC candidate picture was even hidden from the Malay areas. Umno utilized all available state machinery and resources for the campaign. Umno’s determination to defeat KeADILan came with a single objective, i.e. to check the new political wave of Anwar Ibrahim.

Pemuda Umno led by Hishamuddin Hussein and Khairy Jamaluddin was not shy to reveal their violent intention by using slogans such as “Pemuda gempur, PKR terkubur”. The word “gempur” in Malay means none other but “destroy”; and this intention was reinforced by wanting PKR dead and buried.

With all the forces and resources poured in, Umno has failed to destroy KeADILan. On the contrary the by-election was a good rehearsal leading up to the big battle of general election. The targeted attack on KeADILan and Anwar only exposed the deep fear of Umno leaders.

Ijok was not KeADILan’s last fight. No doubt Ijok is a stronghold of BN, but KeADILan is fixed to take on BN on such typical mixed constituency. As the advance troops of KeADILan marching forward, Umno is struggling to defend its besieged fortresses.