Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim“fierce movement”

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today his rally tomorrow would be the beginning of a “fierce movement” to fight for free and fair elections amid reports of vote-rigging in Election 2013.
The PKR de facto leader, who had led thousands in the “Reformasi” street demonstrations in 1998, also called on Malaysians to wear black or use black insignia to protest alleged electoral fraud in Election 2013.
“This shall be a beginning for a fierce movement to clean this country from election malpractices and fraud, for there is no opportunity for renewal without a clean and fair election,” said Anwar at a packed press conference at the PKR headquarters here.
“I shall address fellow Malaysians tomorrow at Kelana Jaya Stadium at 8.30pm fully dressed in black,” he added.
Anwar noted that the results in some 30 federal constituencies were in doubt, thus affecting the legitimacy of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government that was formed with just 133 seats, 21 seats more than the 112 seats required to win a simple majority.
Anwar said a taskforce headed by PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli was gathering evidence on electoral fraud.
“His team will match the proof against an empirical analysis of the specific constituency result to highlight the constituencies whose result is in dispute,” he said.
BN won Election 2013 with a smaller majority than the previous election, ceding an additional seven federal seats to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) that took home 89 seats in total.
Black profile pictures have popped up on Facebook in the wake of Sunday’s polls as Malaysians took to the social networking site to protest reports of vote-buying, phantom voters and washable indelible ink in the 13th general election.
Some Facebook users have also sported profile pictures with the words “Democracy is dead”, while others have flooded US President Barack Obama’s Facebook page with requests to intervene following the disputed results of Election 2013.
When asked if he could guarantee that there would be no street protests, Anwar said: “Talk to the people, ask them to guarantee.”
Anwar said the people’s sentiments about being “robbed” of the country’s legitimate government were growing stronger.
He also pointed out that the Election Commission (EC) has failed to implement polls watchdog Bersih’s eight demands for a free and fair election.
“In fact, the EC could not even implement a simple use of indelible ink and the chairman fumbled miserably to provide a logical explanation for the failure,” said Anwar.
“It is therefore a dictate of our conscience to reject the election result until it is rectified and a reasonable justification is provided by the EC,” he added.
Bersih has similarly refused to recognise the BN government until it verified reports of vote-rigging.