MALAYSIA: Elections expected before 10 March
Updated
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has dissolved parliament, paving the way for snap elections which are now likely to be held in early March. Voting must take place within 60 days of the dissolution of parliament, and a date will be set in the coming days by the Malaysian Election Commission. Mr Badawi told reporters his Barisan Nasional coalition is unlikely to see a repeat of its 2004 landslide victory, after losing support, particularly among ethnic Indian Malaysians, who've staged a series of protests in recent months over allegations of discrimination. Elections didn't need to be held in Malaysia until next year, and many believe Mr Badawi wants to time the vote to exclude former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, from contesting the ballot. Dr Anwar is banned from politics until April, as a result of a corruption conviction 9 years ago.
Presenter: Adam Connors
Speakers: Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia
CONNORS: Mr Badawi just announced the dissolution of parliament. Are you at all surprised that he would call this dissolution forcing the Election Commission to call an election before you're allowed to run?
IBRAHIM: We have challenged to him to allow me to run because election is not due until middle of 2009. Clearly he has announced this date and calling for elections giving possibly the shortest campaign period in any democratic country of seven days, and to deny me my right to participate in the elections.
CONNORS: Just a couple of months ago your party and several other parties combined in Penang to distribute seats amongst each other. In your speech at the Foreign Correspondent's Club are you going to talk about any widening of that collective agreement?
IBRAHIM: Yeah, we have actually reached in a consensus in most states, we are working only one or two more contentious states, but otherwise almost 80 to 90 per cent of the seats will be one opposition candidate versus a Barisan National ruling government candidate.
CONNORS: Will you be openly electioneering during the campaign, not for a seat yourself because you're not allowed to stand, but for your party?
IBRAHIM: Yes I will do that, precisely that, but you know the process is flawed because we have no access to the media and we have not even to date cleared the Electoral Roll list. There are a lot of phantom voters, a lot of voters being transferred out of their constituencies, there's a major, major fraudulent practice.
CONNORS: Is this something that you hold to the Election Commission to sort out or is this something that the government itself has to sort out?
IBRAHIM: Well the Election Commission is not independent, every time we submitted they say well we'll look at it and that's it, the matter rests and then that is also the reason why the last few months there has been massive campaign, including massive demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur protesting the conduct of the Election Commission. But clearly Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is completely oblivious to that fact, and nothing has been done to repair the damage and the credibility of the Election Commission, just like the present ongoing Royal Commission that's tarnished the judiciary. But no action has been taken against all the evidence submitted against an existing former justice.
CONNORS: Do you believe that a combined form of your party and the other parties that you might cooperate with might if you were to be successful in the election could form a unity government?
IBRAHIM: Well the Justice Party that's led presently by my wife, the Democratic Action Party and Islamic party working independently but agreeing on one candidate against a ruling candidate party. But notwithstanding the flaws and the fraught, that would derail the actual results. So I remain quite cautiously confident that we'll make a major impact in these elections.
