Malaysian opposition party expects snap election soon

Malaysian opposition party expects snap election soon

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad is expected to call for a snap national election soon to
secure another five-year term, opposition members said yesterday.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, president of the Melayu Semangat 46
(Spirit of '46 Malays) party, said he expected polls soon based
on the "latest developments and reactions of the prime minister."

"We have our election machinery ready as we feel the polls are
likely to be held in November," the state news agency, Bernama,
quoted him as saying in his east coast Kelantan state stronghold.

Opposition Member of Parliament Wee Choo Keong also picked
November as a likely month for the election, which must be held
before the end of 1995, when the Mahathir government's term
expires.

"We expect lightning polls, as usual," Wee told Reuters in
Kuala Lumpur.

In the 1990 elections, Mahathir's National Front coalition
swept 127 of the 180 parliament seats and won 10 of the 11 state
legislatures at stake.

Mahathir himself revived talk of snap polls, which had
subsided until he said early this week that elections were
imminent and his party needed to be operationally prepared.

The prime minister, however, remained coy about the timing.

"It will be soon but soon is relative. If it is within the
context of 1,000 days, then it will be very soon but if it is a
shorter period, then it is a long way off," he said in the north
Borneo state of Sarawak.

Wee said a November election could use the new electoral rolls
prepared from a recent voter registration exercise that garnered
900,000 new voters.

"Most of the new voters are from the ruling coalition," he
said. Nine million of Malaysia's 19 million people will vote in
the coming polls.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang was more cautious, saying the
polls date is "anybody's guess" although his Democratic Action
Party (DAP) is "ready for a general election now."

The DAP, which is trying to capture the northern Penang's
state legislature, has already scheduled 10,000-seat dinners
between Oct. 3 and 7 on the island state.

Lim predicted a hard fight for the opposition in the coming
polls as Mahathir's coalition would use Malaysia's six years of
eight percent annual economic growth to sway voters.

"There is no scarcity of issues but the public's perception of
issues is what matters," he told Reuters in a telephone
interview.

Wee, also in the DAP, said the opposition could fare better if
Mahathir allowed public rallies during the polls campaign period.

Public rallies were banned after the 1969 elections following
riots that killed hundreds of people.