An election petition against Works Minister S. Samy Vellu would be filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court next week for allegedly committing fraud in the Nov 29 polls, an opposition party member told malaysiakini today.

Dr D. Jeyakumar, a Barisan Alternatif candidate and key leader of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), said the minister won the election by deceit. "We have concrete evidence to prove it," said Jeyakumar.

Samy, who is also MIC president, obtained 17,480 votes while first-timer Jeyakumar garnered 12,221 votes in the contest for the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat. Samy, who is in his seventh term as Sungai Siput MP, saw his majority of 15,610 in the 1995 elections slashed to 5,259 votes.

Jeyakumar said the party had requested a meeting with the Inspector General of Police Norian Mai because they were worried that "Samy's men" would resort to violence in response to the move to challenge his electoral victory in court.

A letter requesting an appointment was hand-delivered to the Norian's office yesterday. When contacted by malaysiakini , Norian's personal assistant Fadzilah Ayub said the police chief would release an official response once he had studied the issue.

Jeyakumar expressed hope that Norian would respond to the letter as no action had been taken against the numerous police reports lodged by party members over the past two months. One was against a group of thugs who had threatened violence against Jeyakumar following police reports lodged against Samy for electoral fraud. The minister was alleged to have used phantom voters and gangsters to threaten Jeyakumar and his supporters during the nine-day election campaign.

"A group of 15 thugs threatened to chop me up and beat up the rest of the party members who were at the office," Jeyakumar said of an incident which took place on Dec 3. He said that PSM members together with their BA coalition partners were having a meeting to plan for a service centre in Sungai Siput.

"The thugs were angry and warned us to leave the town since our candidate did not win the election. They were violent and broke bottles, used obscenities, and threatened violence against those present," said PSM president Dr Nasir Hashim. "One of our member telephoned the police and they came but merely watched."

The police announced that action was not taken against the thugs as there was "no violence" involved. Jeyakumar had alleged that the gangsters were acting on behalf of Samy.

Samy, who is currently on holidays in London, could not be reached for comments.