Sarawak Keadilan chief Hafsah Harun has proposed an all-party committee to investigate allegations of irregularities in last Thursday's Sarawak state election.

The proposal came following a number of incidents, including an attack on a Keadilan candidate, Ahmad Lukman Abang Ibrahim who contested the Demak Laut seat, at the party's operations room in Tabuan. The assault has been reported to the police.

According to the police report, four men allegedly attacked Ahmad and three other Keadilan workers on the eve of polling.

Hafsah claimed that Keadilan's opponents had used a number of foul tactics which must not be condoned in the interest of a free and fair election.

"They used intimidation and scare tactics on our voters and candidates," he said.

Ahmad lost to the incumbent, BN's Abang Draup Zamahari Abang Zen, by 3,845 votes.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chief Richard Wong Ho Leng said he was baffled why some of his own polling agents failed to turn up at the counting centres.

Wong, who was defeated in Bukit Assek, believed they had been "bought over".

Claims of money politics were also rampant in the state election, which saw the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition romping home with 60 of the 62 seats in Sarawak legislative assembly.

Post-mortem

In a front-page report of local English-language daily The Borneo Post today, Hafsah said the proposed committee should comprise representatives from both BN and the opposition parties.

If BN declined to be involved, she added that Keadilan would go ahead and form the committee with the participation of other parties, including DAP, PAS and Star.

Keadilan had not contacted any of the other parties yet and would wait until they had conducted their own post-mortem on the performance of their respective candidates, Hafsah said.

On Friday, Abang Abu Bakar Mustapha, whose ABU group of independents was soundly thrashed, claimed that his supporters had detected ballot papers without the security serial numbers in one polling centre.

He urged the Election Commission to carry out a thorough investigation of all irregularities.