The government may hold a general election within 12 months, after the Election Commission completed work on new electoral boundries, an opposition leader said today.

"There is a great likelihood that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad may want to call for an early general election within the next 12 months," said DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang.

Lim's comments came after Election Commission Chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said that the study of the redelineation of the election boundaries had been completed and would be displayed for public viewing by August.

"I am quite dumbfounded by this confirmation, for parliament was only informed last month that the forthcoming redelineation exercise for parliamentary and state assembly constituencies will be completed within two years but the date for the start of the exercise had not been determined yet," Lim said.

Lim described the exercise as the "fastest redelineation of electoral boundaries exercise" in Malaysia since independence in 1957.

"The unusual speed of the electoral consituency redelineation exercise raises the question as to whether the Election Commission had been given a directive to accelerate the whole process, which in the past had taken over a year," he said.

Lim said the redelineation execise was "fishy" and raised fears as to whether there could be free, fair and clean elections in Malaysia.

'There's no need'

Mahathir last month said he had no plans to call an early general election despite signs of increasing support for the government.

"What is the need, we just had a general election in 1999 and we have plenty of time until 2004," Mahathir said.

The premier was responding to speculation that the next general election, due in 2004, may be held early after the government won with increased majorities in two recent by-elections.

Analysts say that support for Mahathir, which had dwindled over the 1998 sacking and subsequent jailing of his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim, had risen since the US attacks because of fear of Islamic militancy.

An opposition alliance fell apart shortly after the attacks over plans by PAS to impose a theocratic Islamic state.