Mixed views over rejection of polls result
Political analysts have mixed views over Pakatan’s rejection of the election results.
Lisa J. Ariffin, FMT
Political analysts have expressed mixed views over Pakatan Rakyat’s rejection of the recent 13th general election results.
The analysts contacted by FMT today were responding to the opposition’s stand to not recognise the overall result of GE13, but readily accepted their wins in Pakatan-led states.
“I think this is practical politics, and that the disagreement comes down to those states where the votes are more or less borderline, and not outright wins,” Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Associated Professor James Gomez told FMT.
He stressed that the focus “comes down to that level of disagreement”.
“It is a two tier understanding. The general win is contingent on constituencies where the margin call on the number of votes are slim,” he said.
“Should those current seats turn the other way, obviously there will be an overall shift in the national numbers,” he explained.
“This is practical politics,” he added.
‘Pakatan does not walk the talk’
However, UUM vice chancellor Mohamed Mustafa Ishak disagreed with his colleague and said Pakatan should accept the overall GE13 results if they recognised state results.
“If you have officially accepted the mandate for your three states, you must show clearly that you are willing to accept the decision of the public by virtue and do not question the outcome of the election,” he said.
Mohamed Mustafa said Pakatan’s actions of “continuing to govern” their three states, “clearly shows the results is something that they can accept”.
“By rejecting the overall results, it is something really contradictory. It shows they do not walk the talk,” he said, pointing out that Pakatan only rejected results at the federal level and not state.
“It is the same process, at state level and federal level. So you cannot accept one and reject the other,” he said.
“Pakatan must make a stand on their accusations as right now, it is very difficult to understand why they accept three states, but not the overall results,” he added.
Aruna Gopinath of the National Defence University’s Faculty of Strategic Studies also believed Pakatan should “reject the whole thing totally” and not resort to selective acceptance.
“If you say there is fraud, then you cannot say you only want to accept certain things,” she explained.
“You must reject the whole thing totally,” she added.
However, Aruna noted that if there was “enough evidence” of electoral fraud, the Election Commission (EC) should “come in with a full investigation”.
“They must make a full study and investigation,” she said.
