Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has alleged that PAS had used underhanded tactics to win in the last by-elections in Kedah, especially in the Anak Bukit state constituency.

He alleged that there were 500 phantom voters  although the other vice-presidents are still reluctant to do so.

What I personally find baffling is how could Mahathir could make such an allegation knowing that it could boomerang on him?

It does not take a psychologist to know that what Mahathir is doing is basically 'reverse psychology.' Is he 'admitting' to BN's dirty tactical methods?

What it means here is that Mahathir knew all along that it was Umno or BN which have been placing 'phantom voters' everywhere, especially in postal votes. It had ensured the party of winning many seats when it was supposed to have lost but won marginally (and magically) at the very last minute.

It is an open secret that such a thing is happening at the EC.

Keadilan candidates like Ezam Mohammed and Dr Chandra Muzaffar could have easily won in the last general election if not for the last one or two postal bags that came in at the very last minute to turn their fortunes.

In fact Najib's slim victory in the Pekan parliamentary seat was attributed to the postal votes.

Lembah Pantai-BN candidate Sharizat Abdul Jalil was seen wiping tears when the last of the boxes were counted. She was saved when the postal bags arrived mysteriously from out of the blue at the last minute to give her additional votes to win.

So, what Mahathir is saying here is: This is what Umno or BN have been doing all these years, i.e. by moving voters where they like in order to ensure that their candidates can win in the critical seats and even introducing phantom voters everywhere.

And the allegation can only be exposed at this time when many Indonesian illegal workers are being hounded and repatriated to Indonesia.

Many of these Indonesians had the opportunity of voting in the last elections. Now their 'services' are no longer needed, Mahathir is daring enough to 'suggest' to the EC to clean off the names of these people?

It is atypical of Mahathir to 'tell' the officers to do his bidding to buck up, like when he said that 'Anwar must be found guilty!' even before the case against him was brought to trial.

So what would the judges and prosecutors do, after receiving this indirect order, but to find ways and indict Anwar and find him guilty?

One can never expect for Mahathir to actually call up the judges or officers to do what he so pleases, since there will be a record.

Many Indonesians who are not back on their own soil in Indonesia are making such allegations of being made used of by the government to vote for them as phantom voters. And they are saying this on Indonesian television!

It will be nice if the Freeanwar Campaign (FAC) office in Jakarta were to do a research on this and perhaps produce a documentary by interviewing some of the Indonesians who had actually voted in our elections as phantom voters.