It is not the best of omens, it seems. Last month's general election gave the Barisan Nasional (BN) and its new chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi their best ever result - 90 percent of the 219 seats in Parliament, control of 11 of 12 states which held elections (the 13th, Sarawak, is a BN controlled state anyway).

Yet the Election Commission's (EC) less-than-honest conduct of the exercise and darker forces marred the polls. Any other country with a democratic tradition, however nascent, would have nullified it.

The BN, instead, has wished away the problems and dismissed opposition claims of poll rigging as sour grapes. But there is one huge difference. At no point, did the opposition expect to unseat the BN government, indeed they accepted it would get at least a two-thirds majority.

The results surprised everyone, including BN and Umno leaders. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was uncertain of his chances in Pekan, and he had asked his aides a day before polling to persuade the PAS candidate, a retired brigadier-general, to step down.

Pak Lah himself had accepted the inevitable that Kelantan and Trengganu would remain under PAS control, and his best hope was to retain Perlis and Kedah, and prevent an electoral haemorrhage in the other states.