DAP backs Anwar as opposition leader, says Kit Siang

Anwar speaks during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, May 6, 2013. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 ― The DAP is endorsing Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as Opposition Leader despite winning more seats than PKR in Election 2013, party advisor Lim Kit Siang said today.

The DAP won 38 federal seats in the country’s tightest election in history, making it the second-largest party in Parliament; PKR and PAS took 30 and 21 seats respectively.

“We supported him as prime minister for a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government, which was supposed to be formed on the fifth of May,” Lim told reporters at the DAP headquarters here today.

“But since this didn’t come about, the preparation and commitment for Pakatan Rakyat remains. That’s why we propose that Anwar continues as parliamentary opposition leader and shadow prime minister,” added the DAP advisor.

Lim also said the results in some constituencies could be challenged due to alleged electoral fraud.

“Pakatan Rakyat will look into these constituencies where fraudulent practices were committed and take the necessary steps to uphold the integrity of the electoral process,” said the newly-elected Gelang Patah MP.

DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke pointed out that the DAP lost the Bentong, Cameron Highlands and Labis federal seats by fewer than 400 votes each.

“Many of these seats didn’t provide ‘Borang 14,’” said Loke, who was also at the press conference, referring to the form recording the total number of votes at each polling stream that must be provided to counting agents.

Anwar said earlier today that he would gather mass support to question the legitimacy of the newly-elected BN government, stressing that the “worst electoral fraud in history” had kept the coalition in federal government.

Election watchdog Bersih also said it would not recognise the BN government until it verified reports of vote-rigging.

BN won the 13th general election with a smaller majority, losing an additional seven federal seats to PR, besides failing to retake Selangor and Penang, the two most industrialised states in Malaysia.

BN and PR took 133 and 89 federal seats respectively, while the latter also significantly increased its number of state seats from 197 in Election 2008 to 230 in yesterday’s polls.

Lim pointed out today that PR won the popular vote as well.

“It was a ‘Malaysian tsunami’ and not a ‘Chinese tsunami’,” said Lim, dismissing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s statement yesterday that attributed BN’s losses to a Chinese swing.

“In many parts of the country, Pakatan won seats in areas that were previously considered as BN strongholds and took down many big BN guns in Malay-majority areas,” he added, highlighting the Kuala Terengganu, Alor Setar, Lumut and Sepang federal constituencies.

BN’s losses in major cities and towns from George Town to Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Seremban, Malacca and big towns in Johor show a rising discontent among the middle-class and urban working-class, who are concerned with issues like corruption, increasing cost of living and crime.

DAP publicity chief Tony Pua, who was also at the press conference, similarly pointed out that PR’s improved performance in Selangor, particularly the semi-rural areas, were won with a “massive increase in Malay support”.