Illegal practices
Taib Mamud has kept power for 30 years by blatant election rigging says new PKR Leader Baru Bian. The top human rights lawyer, who became party leader in January, says he has amassed evidence pointing to widespread criminal behaviour by the ruling BN coalition parties, designed to pervert the outcome of numerous elections.
“A whole range of illegal practices have been developed to deny the people of Sarawak their right to free and fair elections” he said, “they include, intimidation, bribery, theft and forgery”.
PKR leaders have formally reported these problems to the Malaysian Electoral Commission and are demanding that requests by Malaysia’s top legal body, the Malaysian Bar Association, for independent election monitoring, should be obeyed in the up-coming Sarawak State Elections.
“Such crimes must be investigated and anyone found guilty or assisting in such practices should be severely punished” Bian said. “Time and again the people of Sarawak have been cheated in elections by the very authorities who were charged with ensuring fair play. Nothing can get better in our country until there are free and fair elections. This must remain the priority campaign for everyone in Sarawak” he urged.
Widespread criticism of BN election fraud in Malaysia
Baru Bian is being supported in his campaign by Mafrel, the Malaysian Association for free elections and also by Oon Boon Keong of the Malaysian Bar Association, who visited Kuching in February to demand that provisions are put in place to ensure the open monitoring of elections and at the counting stations. The international bodies Transparency International, Amnesty International and Open Society have all condemned the atrocious irregularities and are demanding open and free elections in Sarawak. According to Oon, Sarawak has one of the worst records in the world when it comes to the perversion of elections Malaysia has slipped from 125 to 170 on the world corruption league, as our own government admits. People must campaign for justice in this matter, says Mafrel.
Click here if you would like to submit your own election-rigging experiences for inclusion in Sarawak Report’s soon to be published ‘BN Election Cookbook’