'Rallies will be calm, although some want to go beyond'

VIDEO | 2.48 min

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim noted that he could sense the frustration in the rakyat that they want to go beyond protests, but said he hoped the ongoing rallies to protest electoral fraud would remain peaceful.

"When we announce (at the rally) that we are not going to march, you could see a few thousands left in disappointment.

"You could sense that people want to move beyond these rallies... We pray that things are orderly," he told a press conference in Petaling Jaya this afternoon.

Despite the police crackdown against rally organisers, Anwar thanked the cops for acting professionally on-site when the ralllies were ongoing.

"They (police) did not provoke like in previous Bersih rallies, so we thank them and hopefully there will be no provocations," he said, though he suggested the police to focus more on crime-busting.

Anwar said the rally against electoral fraud, dubbed "Black 505" in Petaling Jaya on May 25 was not the last, and more will follow for as long as the people call for it.

However, the PKR supremo said the call by PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu for millions to protest at Dataran Merdeka was merely an expression of the people's sentiment and the matter was not discussed by Pakatan Rakyat's top leadership.

On former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's ( right ) statement that street demonstrations would lead to chaos, Anwar replied: "I heard (Egyptian President Hosny) Mubarak said the same thing and (Zimbabwean President Robert) Mugabe and (Philippine president Ferdinand) Marcos before that, so I am not surprised that Mahathir would say the same thing".

He added that Pakatan will discuss how to move on, but is already pursuing legal action against the Election Commission (EC) for its failure in implementing the indelible ink and filing election petitions.

Anwar, wife lodges report

Anwar, together with wife and PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail ( left in photo ), also took the lead to lodge police reports today at the Tropicana police station as the indelible ink applied on their finger on polling day easily washed off.

"I believe thousands of Malaysians have lodged similar police reports in the past week and today I and Azizah join them.

"I voted at 9.30am and washed my hands soon after and there was no clear sign of any black mark on my finger," he said.

PKR has launched a campaign to gather 100,000 police reports to send a message to the EC that the latter’s blunder be taken seriously as, despite its insistence that the indelible ink would last five days, the ink used on polling day could be washed off within hours.

"The entire intention is to dupe, mislead and deceit the Malaysian public as they knew it was not permanent, but still used it.

"The EC knew from the beginning it must submit to this (indelible ink) demand but attempted to mislead and wanted this system of mass rigging to continue," Wan Azizah said.