Malaysia cabinet keeps old guard - BBC News

By Jonathan Kent
BBC, Kuala Lumpur

The Malaysian prime minister has reshuffled his cabinet following his ruling coalition's overwhelming victory in last Sunday's general election.

However, Abdullah Badawi has not made the sweeping changes widely expected.

Mr Abdullah promised Malaysians change and a clean government. Opposition leaders have described the appointments as flawed.

It was expected that the new prime minister would remove ministers close to his predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Dr Mahathir is blamed by many for the rise of cronyism and sleaze. But many of the old faces remain.

Malaysia's ministers for international trade, for entrepreneur development and for public works have all found themselves embroiled in scandal, but all have kept their positions.

Mr Abdullah said all were clean. Most other senior cabinet posts remain unchanged; nor is Mr Abdullah delegating much of his own heavy workload.

Although he has enlarged the cabinet and created new ministries, the prime minister is keeping his finance portfolio and half of his home ministry responsibilities.

[More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3574267.stm]

Malaysia election chief urged to quit - AFP

Pressure is mounting on Malaysia’s election commission chief Abd Al-Rashid Abd Al-Rahman and his entire team to quit over his handling of the polls which gave the government a landslide victory.

A local watchdog, the Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections, said Sunday’s election was badly managed and the worst ever held since independence in 1957 and should be nullified.

Khairul Anuar, secretary of the watchdog, said on Thursday around 100 volunteers travelled nationwide to observe the election process.

Prime Minister Abd Allah Ahmad Badawi’s ruling National Front won a landslide victory against the Islamic Party (PAS).

Opposition parties had said there were irregularities in the electoral roll that kept thousands of voters from the ballot box.

The Election Commission (EC) was forced to extend voting by two hours in central Selangor state after discrepancies in the rolls saw names of many voters missing from the lists.

[More at http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=2710]

Malaysia PM basks in vote triumph - BBC News

By Jonathan Kent
BBC, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's general election had not been expected to produce shocks, but in the end it did.

The country's Prime Minister of five months, Abdullah Badawi, had asked the people to give him a strong mandate and they responded, beyond the ruling coalition's expectations.

The Malaysian media dubbed it the blue wave. The Prime Minister's ruling Barisan Nasional, or National Front, coalition with its dark blue flag washed across Malaysia and its opponents were swept away.

The main opposition party, Pas, which wants to introduce hard-line Islamic laws into Muslim dominated areas, suffered worst.

It boasted 26 MPs in the old 193-strong parliament. Now it has just seven in the enlarged 219-seat assembly.

Worse still it lost control of the state government in rural Terengganu and came within a few hundred votes of surrendering the neighbouring state of Kelantan - its supposedly impregnable stronghold.

[More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3560519.stm]

Abdullah sworn in as Malaysian PM - BBC News

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has been sworn in as the country's leader after winning a landslide general election victory.

The ruling National Front coalition also won 12 out of 13 states, recapturing the state of Terengganu from the Islamic Party (Pas).

Pas managed to hold onto its other state, Kelantan, by a slim majority.

The overall result is a major victory for Mr Abdullah, who assumed power in October when Mahathir Mohamad retired.

The 64-year-old career politician and former Islamic student had campaigned hard in the northern states - a heartland for ethnic Malay Muslims - and has called for "modern and progressive" Islamic rule.

"This big win means a lot to us all. It represents the acceptance, the support of the people for the coalition," Mr Abdullah said after declaring victory.

[More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3556761.stm]

Malaysia's PM forces elections - The Guardian

By John Aglionby

Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, yesterday announced the dissolution of parliament in an attempt to secure his own mandate and the legitimacy he has lacked since replacing Mahathir Mohamad last October.
Polling day, which the electoral commission will set when the state legislatures have also been dissolved, is expected to be before the end of the month.

The ruling National Front (BN) coalition of 12 parties from Malay, Chinese and Indian backgrounds is almost certain to be returned with a handsome majority.

But unless Mr Badawi can reverse the slide at the last election in 1999, where BN's support slumped to 56.5% of the popular vote, analysts say his own position is at risk within his United Malays National Organisation.

Many factors are in Mr Badawi's favour: he has shown a determination to tackle corruption; the economy is picking up; and the opposition is far from united. But many of Malaysia's 10 million voters have only ever known one leader and might opt for change.

[From http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/mar/04/malaysia]