Mahathir's coalition off to early lead in election

Mahathir's coalition off to early lead in election

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's
ruling coalition on Monday took an early lead in Malaysia's
bitterly contested general election.

Mahathir's 14-party Barisan Nasional coalition won 11 of the
first 12 races, all in the prime minister's stronghold states of
Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo island, the Election Commission said.
At least 97 seats are needed to win a majority in the 193-member
lower house of parliament.

The 73-year-old Mahathir, Asia's longest serving elected
leader, was expected to retain a majority and win an
unprecedented fifth term as prime minister.

But the four-party opposition coalition, united behind
Mahathir's jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim, was hoping to deny
the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority, needed to amend the
constitution, for the first time in three decades.

Small parties in Mahathir's multi-ethnic coalition accounted
for all but one of his alliance's early victories in Sabah and
Sarawak, where the Barisan Nasional controlled 38 of 48 seats in
the outgoing federal parliament.

Results from states in Peninsular Malaysia, where the Barisan
Nasional faced stiffer competition from the opposition, were yet
to come in.

The winner was expected before midnight (11 p.m. Jakarta
time). The final tally was not anticipated before early Tuesday.

The outspoken prime minister was almost certain to face a
strengthened opposition, emboldened by Anwar's jailing and
mounting calls for reform of the political system after 18 years
of iron rule under Mahathir.

In an unusual scene in his home state, Mahathir, in power
since 1981, supporters and opponents of the prime minister
shouted competing slogans after he voted in Titi Gajah town in
the northern state of Kedah.

The confrontation in Kedah captured the mood of the
electorate, torn between loyalty to the man who has shaped modern
Malaysia, leading it during nearly two decades of fast economic
growth, and a desire on the part of many for an end to what they
see as virtual one-man rule.

Anwar's dismissal, his beating in detention by the former
police chief and imprisonment for corruption united the otherwise
disparate opposition behind a joint manifesto calling for reform
of the judiciary, police and media.

For the first time the opposition ran candidates head-to-head
against Mahathir's 14-party Barisan Nasional coalition in most of
the 193 parliamentary constituencies in a bid to deny the ruling
alliance a two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution.

The prime minister's multi-ethnic alliance held 166 seats in
the 192-member outgoing parliament. Ninety-seven seats are needed
for a majority in the enlarged 193-seat parliament, and 129 for
the two-thirds margin which is Mahathir's goal.

In addition to the federal parliament that chooses the prime
minister, voters will elect legislative assemblies in 11 of 13
states. Currently, Mahathir's coalition rules all but Kelantan.

An election monitoring group, Pemantau, said it received
reports of irregularities from several parts of the country but
the Election Commission said it had received no complaints.