Mahathir confident of victory, ends campaign
Mahathir confident of victory, ends campaign
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday wrapped up a bruising eight-day campaign for re-election, with a smooth victory assured in all but two of Malaysia's 13 states.
"We stand a good chance of being returned to power in Penang," said Mahathir, as he finished a second visit to the northern showcase industrial hub yesterday where the National Front coalition faces a strong challenge. He traveled swiftly on to the other hotly contested state of Kelantan.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP), Malaysia's largest opposition party, is making what it calls a "do-or-die" bid for Penang, promising voters a new era of unbridled prosperity if it wins.
While the fight for Penang is expected to be close, analysts said that Mahathir's hopes of retaking the northeastern state of Kelantan from a resurgent fundamentalist Parti Islam (PAS) were very dim.
Mahathir yesterday revisited Kelantan to bolster the National Front's campaign in the only opposition-ruled state where his 14- party multi-racial coalition suffered a crushing defeat five years ago.
"The Front will have to contend with establishing whether it has made any headway at all in the rural Malay heartland, where PAS is still entrenched," an analyst said.
The National Front has promised to pump in a billion ringgit (US$416 million) in projects to create more than 20,000 jobs within a year if it won in Kelantan, a rural backwater.
The no-holds barred campaign which climaxed this week with politicians raising previously taboo racial issues, will draw to a close at midnight yesterday (1600GMT), police said.
The first of Malaysia's 9.01 million voters will cast their ballots in the east Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak shortly after dawn today.
At stake are 192 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the federal parliament and 394 seats in 11 state legislatures. Sabah and Sarawak will elect representatives to parliament but will not be voting for new state assemblies.
The National Front bagged 11 parliamentary and nine state seats in constituencies where its candidates were not challenged on nomination day.
Both government and opposition politicians reminded voters of the ethnic bloodletting that erupted when the government failed to win its two-thirds majority in 1969.
DAP chief Lim Kit Siang accused the National Front of recalling the riots, in which hundreds died when ethnic Malays and Chinese clashed, to intimidate voters into returning the government, an allegation Mahathir strongly denied.
"We cannot have riots no matter what happens. The government will not allow any rioting ... but anyone who incites people to riot is breaking the law and appropriate action will be taken against such person or persons," Mahathir said.
Penang and Kelantan aside, Mahathir is assured of runaway victories in all other states where his popularity has soared along with buoyant economic growth averaging eight percent over the past seven years.
In an open letter to Malaysians published Saturday, Mahathir said the economic prosperity was being shared by all Malaysians with per capita incomes rising to more than 8,000 ringgit ($3,200).
"We cannot afford disruptions in our plans by those who do not care for anything except political ambitions," Mahathir said.