Anwar rallies support for fair poll
Anwar Ibrahim … on an election footing for April vote. Photo: AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's Opposition Leader, called for free elections as tens of thousands of supporters rallied in Kuala Lumpur, testing official tolerance for public dissent before polls early this year.
''We want a free and fair elections,'' Mr Anwar said in a statement to Malaysians to mark the rally on Saturday. ''You have a vote and I have a vote. No one should steal our votes.''
Mr Anwar's three-party People's Alliance secured police permission for the ''People's Uprising Rally'' in Merdeka Stadium near the centre of Malaysia's capital, abiding by a ban on street protests introduced by the government of the Prime Minister, Najib Razak last year.
About 50,000 people attended the event, which concluded without any arrests, the Dang Wangi police chief, Zainuddin Ahmad, told reporters.
Mr Najib must dissolve parliament by April 28 for elections. Indelible ink will be used for the first time to help prevent voter fraud and Malaysians overseas will be allowed to cast postal votes. Even so, some other demands by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections lobby group, which staged a rally in June, have yet to be met.
Mr Najib's approval rating fell to 63 per cent in December from 65 per cent in November, the lowest since he received 59 per cent support in August 2011, the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research said last week.
His National Front coalition is fighting to hold on to power after governing Malaysia since independence in 1957. In the last election in 2008, the ruling parties lost the two-thirds majority in parliament they had held for four decades. Mr Anwar's People's Alliance controls four of the country's 13 states, including Selangor and Penang.