KL campaigns close amid more accusations

KL campaigns close amid more accusations

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his underdog rivals swapped fresh accusations on Sunday on the eve of snap polls after an eight-day campaign that the opposition called the dirtiest in Malaysia's history.

Mahathir, ending a nationwide tour in his home state of Kedah, renewed his attack on the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), saying its newspaper had published slander.

"They hope that by slandering the government leaders and my family, the Muslims will reject me, UMNO and Barisan Nasional," the official Bernama news agency quoted him as saying.

He blamed PAS for causing a split among Muslim Malays. Mahathir's United Malays National Organization (UMNO) is the dominant partner in his 14-party Barisan Nasional coalition. Mahathir's coalition faces a challenge from the four-party Barisan Alternatif (Alternative Front) opposition in Monday's polls, the country's 10th since independence in 1957 and the most hotly contested in three decades.

The Barisan Nasional, which held 166 seats in the 192-member outgoing parliament, is expected to retain power.

But the opposition is trying to capitalise on a split in the Malay majority and deny the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority for the first time in three decades.

Mahathir told a news conference it would not be a failure if his coalition did not win the two thirds.

"As long as we win more than 50 percent (of the seats), it is not a failure," he said in the Kedah town of Jitra. "We say two thirds because our goal for the country is to carry out our development programs."

The opposition front comprises PAS, the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Rakyat Malaysia and Parti Keadilan Nasional headed by Azizah Ismail, the wife of jailed former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim.

At the end of her campaign trail on Sunday, Azizah resurrected her husband's fall from grace in a final and emotional bid to preserve her husband's political legacy, a task she labeled "an uphill struggle."

Azizah crisscrossed Permatang Pauh -- Anwar's former constituency and now her stomping ground for the opposition -- and carried the jailed politician's cause into the home state of his political nemesis, Mahathir.

With time running out before the general election on Monday, both the opposition and the government focused on Anwar, the former deputy prime minister who was sacked and jailed for corruption and allegations of sodomy.

"You cannot trust the TV and newspapers. It's all lies and propaganda," Azizah told a crowd of 200 supporters as midnight approached Saturday in a village outside Alor Setar, the capital of Mahahtir's home state, Kedah.

She dismissed newspaper stories and widespread rumors that she had sought to divorce Anwar, that he was an abusive husband and that she was now cheating on the man who is serving six years in jail for abuse of power.

She expressed sadness that her jailed husband had been the center of a smear campaign in the run up to the polls and accused the National Front of using "immoral and unethical" tactics to ridicule the opposition.

Opposition alliance spokesman Rustam Sani earlier Sunday said a faked photo depicting Anwar dancing with a woman who is not his wife had been circulated, as had thousands of fake copies of the newspaper of PAS, a key component of the Alternative Front.

Azizah likened the media attacks to the attack by the then police chief on her husband when he was arrested last year after leading a mass demonstration against Mahathir.

"It is just like the night of his arrest. He was blindfolded and attacked," Azizah said.

Campaigning must officially end at midnight on Sunday. A total of 9.6 million people are on the electoral rolls. DAP leader Lim Kit Siang called the campaign the dirtiest ever in the 42 years since independence.

Mahathir said Malaysia's "silent majority" and party unity would propel his coalition to a big win in the polls.

Opposition party workers said on Sunday they had discovered fake copies of PAS's newspaper Harakah. The newspaper carried stories which purportedly quoted PAS and opposition leaders as making pro-Mahathir remarks.

PAS leaders said they had asked police to investigate the distribution of the newspaper, calling it another dirty trick to smear the opposition.

"This is stooping very low," Siti Mariah Mahmud, a leader of the women's wing of PAS, told reporters. "This is a desperado act by them and I think it may backfire."