Mahathir government caps biggest ever win<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
\ncapped this week's landslide victory in the Malaysian elections
\nby snapping up the last undeclared seat in the north Borneo state
\nof Sabah yesterday, the Election Commission said.<\/p>\n
The commission delayed polls in the Kinabatangan seat until
\nyesterday as officials in the constituency forgot to open a
\npolling station on April 24, the first day of the elections.<\/p>\n
Victory in the Sabah seat underscored Mahathir's National
\nFront coalition's biggest ever election victory. The coalition
\nhas 162 of the 192 seats in the expanded parliament.<\/p>\n
The coalition also won 10 of the 11 state assemblies
\ncontested, its only setback being the failure to recapture
\nKelantan from fundamentalist Moslem All-Malaysian Islamic party.<\/p>\n
Mahathir met King Ja'afar Tuanku Abdul Rahman at the national
\npalace in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to seek ceremonial consent to
\nform a new government.<\/p>\n
The 69-year-old prime minister said on Wednesday that he would
\nform a new cabinet next week after consultations with National
\nFront leaders.<\/p>\n
\"This week is too short. It will take a bit more time to form
\nthe cabinet,\" Mahathir said.<\/p>\n
He said he would not expand his 29-man cabinet despite the
\nincreased majority and bigger pool of parliamentarians.<\/p>\n
\"We don't want a top-heavy administration despite the large
\nnumbers,\" Mahathir said.<\/p>\n
Mahathir's cabinet has six vacancies after one minister
\nretired, one lost his seat and four others contested state seats.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Malaysia's largest opposition party, humiliated in
\nthe just-concluded general elections, swore yesterday it would
\nmake a comeback and dismissed rumors that its chief was quitting.<\/p>\n
\"The DAP shall overcome the present setback in no time at all.
\nIt shall climb back from the valley and get back all the seats
\nand more by the next general election,\" Tan Seng Giaw, national
\nvice-chairman for the Democratic Action Party (DAP), told
\nreporters.<\/p>\n
The DAP, a largely ethnic-Chinese party, was thrashed by
\nMahathir's predominantly Malay National Front in Tuesday's polls.<\/p>\n
The opposition party only won nine of 192 parliament seats and
\n11 of the 394 state seats in the polls, compared to National
\nFront's 162 parliamentary seats and 338 in the states.<\/p>\n
Tan said following its worst election defeat in its 29 years,
\nthe DAP has been the target of many rumors, including that its
\nchief Lim Kit Siang was resigning from politics.<\/p>\n
Lim, Malaysia's opposition leader of 25 years, suffered his
\nworst embarrassment in the polls by losing the party's battle to
\ncapture Malaysia's wealthiest state, Penang in the north.<\/p>\n
Lim was trounced in a one-on-one battle against Penang
\nNational Front head and chief minister Koh Tsu Koon and has
\ndeclared he would not make another bid for the state.<\/p>\n
Tan, a physician, said newspapers have speculated he was going
\ninto private practice after the elections and that Lim was also
\nready to quit politics.<\/p>\n
\"Please stop talking about Kit Siang or me or others
\nresigning. The DAP shall have a post-mortem on the election,\"
\nsaid Tan.<\/p>\n
He attributed the National Front's landslide victory to unfair
\ncoverage by the largely pro-government media and rumors that a
\nhuge DAP win would result in racial riots.<\/p>\n
Tan said euphoria over the nation's booming economy had helped
\nthe National Front but warned that the good times may not be on
\nfor long.<\/p>\n
\"The stock market is not doing well. The public and private
\nsectors are competing for savings. The current account deficit
\ncontinues to be big. All Malaysians must be prepared for economic
\ndepression,\" said Tan.<\/p>\n
Editorial -- Page 4<\/p>\n
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