Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) today rejected the outcome of the 11 th general election and accused the government and Election Commission of colluding to commit fraud.

"The elections have proven to be a fraud..We do not accept the results," said deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali in a press statement.

He said some of the factors for the opposition's routing yesterday was the role played by the media which had been "manipulated" to disseminate government propaganda.

He said other examples were the use of money politics especially in the case of Terengganu where the federal government stopped providing oil royalties to the state after PAS took it over in 1999.

In a major upset, Barisan Nasional (BN) not only regained control of Terengganu but decisively beat Keadilan's coalition partner, PAS, into a retreat in all key Malay heartland states including Kelantan.

Keadilan lost all its parliamentary seats except for Permatang Pauh where party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail scraped through after three recounts with a 590-vote majority.

In 1999, she had won the seat with a decisive 9,000 majority.

All key PAS leaders lost their parliamentary seats while its spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat and president Abdul Hadi Awang came close to losing their respective state seats of Chempaka in Kelantan and Ru Rendang in Terengganu respectively.

Only the DAP escaped the massacre to increase its number of parliamentary seats from 10 in 1999 to12.

EC's inefficiency

Syed Husin said another reason for the opposition's poor performance was the EC's bias in favour of the ruling coalition and its inefficiency in running the polls.

"This year's elections have proven to be very chaotic; the EC has been completely biased, inefficient and ill-prepared. Thousands of voters were denied the right to vote because of many irregularities found in the voter registers and the changing of rules at the last hour," he said.

Aside from this, the deputy president said other factors which contributed to the opposition's loss included fear generated by PAS' Islamic state agenda, as well as the disunity and disorganisation within Barisan Alternatif.

"We are not defeated. I don't think so. There are certain blessings to be found in the disaster. We can now realistically assess the situation and chart the party's future," he added.

Syed Husin's views were echoed by Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua who said the election had been unfairly run by the EC.

"There were many mistakes. The EC acted irregularly and caused many people to lose their confidence. People were also denied the right to vote," he said when contacted today.

He claimed that the election results had been "manipulated" in order to destroy Keadilan.

On the the different fates of Keadilan and DAP, Tian Chua said DAP's performance could not be considered as a full victory.

"DAP also lost their seats in Kota Melaka and Petaling Jaya (Utara)," he said.

'Rights neglected'

Although it won a number of new seats, DAP is reported to have lost its 30-year Kota Melaka stronghold to MCA. However, the votes are still being recounted.

The party also failed to regain the PJ Utara seat which was held by the party for years until the disqualification of its 1995 candidate Dr Kua Kia Soong as a result of a technicality.

MCA has held the seat since then, with its incumbent Chew Mei Fun ( photo ) winning a decisive victory yesterday with a 15,000-vote majority against DAP Selangor chief Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew.

Tian Chua insisted that Keadilan's poor showing would not end the party's role in opposition politics.

"Although we have lost, we will still serve the public. We need an opposition in the country to help the public fight for their rights which are neglected by other parties. It is only this way that we can have a real democracy," he said.