KEPALA BATAS, Malaysia—Malaysians flocked to the polls in a general election on Saturday, with the ruling coalition seen as certain to retain power but the prime minister's leadership hanging in the balance.
The electoral system itself was also on trial as opposition parties accused the multi-racial Barisan Nasional coalition of vote-rigging to continue its five-decades-long grip on power.
Barisan has effectively ruled since independence from Britain in 1957, thanks partly to a weak and ideologically divided opposition, but it is bracing for a protest vote this time over rising prices and racial tensions.
Voting began just after dawn at about 8,000 polling booths across the Southeast Asian nation, from remote villages on Borneo island to the main towns and cities of peninsular Malaysia. The final result is unlikely to be clear until 1600 GMT on Saturday.
"The people are already fed up," said Sharil Azrul, an Internet entrepreneur in the northern island of Penang. "Prices have been rising. The cost of living has been rising. Even baby milk powder has been rising. We want the opposition to have a chance. Maybe they might do something better."
In the northeastern state of Terengganu, police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse an angry mob that attacked them with sticks and stones, smashing the windscreens of three police cars, channel TV3 reported. Ten were arrested.
Opposition campaign rallies have drawn big crowds, especially ethnic Chinese and Indian voters unhappy with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's coalition, which is dominated by politicians from the Muslim majority of ethnic Malays.
Ethnic Chinese and Indians make up around a third of the population of 26 million and many complain of discrimination by the government in favour of Malays, in terms of education, jobs, financial assistance and religious policy.
About 32 percent of Malaysia's 10.9 million eligible voters had cast their ballots by noon on Saturday, state news agency Bernama quoted the election commission chief as saying.
Instability warning
Abdullah told voters on election eve they could cause instability and chaos if they abandoned Barisan Nasional–an oft-repeated warning that is usually code for racial turmoil.
Barisan holds 90 percent of seats in the outgoing federal parliament and political experts say Abdullah's continued leadership could be in jeopardy if his majority falls back below 80 percent, or around 178 seats in the new 222-seat parliament.
The elections, which will also decide the make-up of state assemblies, have been tainted by allegations of vote-rigging.
Abdullah said after voting in his home town of Kepala Batas, in a rice-growing area of Penang state, that the opposition was using its allegations as an excuse in case it fared badly.
"I want this election to be a credible election," he said, looking relaxed in a blue batik shirt, as Muslim women in headscarves and men in skullcaps formed a long queue to vote.
Former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of Parti Keadilan Rakyat but banned from standing for election because of a corruption conviction, said opposition parties could win a third of federal parliamentary seats despite electoral fraud.
"We will shake the government this time ... We will teach these cheaters a lesson," he said after voting in a Penang seat held by his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Wan Azizah has said that if re-elected, she will quit parliament and give Anwar a chance to win the same seat on his own in a by-election. The ban on Anwar, a former deputy premier who held the seat until his jailing, lapses next month.
The leader of the main opposition Islamist party, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, also accused Barisan of cheating, saying his supporters had found a member of the prime minister's main ruling party in possession of 28 identity cards.
Nik Aziz's Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) controls northeast Kelantan state, the only opposition-held state, and Barisan is going all-out win it back after 18 years of PAS rule.
"They appear to be in a state of panic," the elderly cleric, wearing cream-coloured robes and a white turban, told reporters after voting at a school fringed by coconut and banana trees in Kota Bahru, the Kelantan capital.
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