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.