Opposition party Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) seems to be the first casualty of 'flag-tearing and heckling', a phenomenon that's sure to surface come every election.

The party claimed this afternoon that its flags and banners around the its Subang Jaya operations centre had been torn down and hecklers were harassing party workers.

"Two vehicles - a van and a Kancil car - drove by Keadilan's Subang Jaya operations centre at 32, Jalan USJ 4/9G between 4.30 to 4.50 this morning and heckled workers," said the centre's director Ismail Kamal Abdul Rahman.

"I could not see the vehicles' registration numbers because it was dark," said Ismail who later lodged a police report on the incidents at the USJ police station

Ismail said after the group left, he took a drive to check on Keadilan's party flags around the area and found them to be untouched.

"But, at about 8.10am, I received a call from our Kelana Jaya parliamentary candidate Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud, that our flags had been torn down and substituted with PAS' logo. One of our flags even had an obscenity written all over it," he said, adding a total of 38 flags had been town down.

"I believe this is a warning us," Ismail noted.

BN bags state seat

Syed Shahir is contesting against MCA's Loh Seng Kok for Kelana Jaya, which is a new parliamentary seat.

The Kelana Jaya constituency - in which Subang Jaya is one of its two state seats - is a mixed constituency with 42.1 percent Malay, 37.5 percent Chinese and 19.4 percent Indian.

Yesterday, the ruling Barisan Nasional candidate Lee Hwa Beng won the Subang Jaya state seat uncontested when the DAP candidate was disqualified for failing to comply with an election regulation.

Veteran DAP leader Cheah Kam Chiew was disallowed from running by the Election Commission's returning officer on grounds that he had not submitted an account of expenses he incurred during the 1999 general election.