The absence of election process irregularities would not have prevented Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) and its ally PAS from being massacred, former Keadilan deputy president Chandra Muzaffar claimed today.

Speaking at a forum organised by The Star daily at its office in Petaling Jaya, he said Keadilan was now largely decimated while PAS had lost much ground in the Malay heartland states.

"The issue of massive turnouts was not unexpected. This is something that happens when there is intense opposition between two parties. The verdict is that of one after a fair election, and of how the people feel ... we should now move along," said Chandra, who is president of the International Movement for a Just World (Just).

He argued that the factors which contributed to the crushing defeat of the two opposition parties were the image of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the robust economic conditions.

"The palpable mood, described accurately as the Pak Lah phenomenon, blended beautifully with Malay political culture. Contrast this with 1999, when there was the Anwar (Ibrahim) issue, an economy begging to emerge from a crisis, and serious doubts over economic stability," he said.

According to him, other factors included the fact that women voters were largely turned off by PAS and the unexpected swing of young votes to Barisan Nasional (BN).

To a question, Chandra admitted that while there was no concrete evidence to show that 53 percent of female votes migrated to BN, there was nevertheless a perception that PAS infringed on women's rights, and this had worked against the Islamic party.

"There is a certain mindset at work here, and even though they (PAS) made tactical concessions by fielding women in 10 parliament seats, the party's mindset is what I am more concerned about," he told the 100-odd audience comprising academicians, journalists and politicians.

'Outright manipulation'

Another speaker, PAS central committee member Kamaruddin Jaafar blamed poor management of the election process and in certain cases 'the outright manipulation of election results' for his party's misadventure.

"The exceedingly high voter turnout indicates a possible manipulation (of votes), in order to shore up BN's position in some seats," he claimed.

According to Kamaruddin, the inconsistent figures between the number of ballots issued for the Bachok parliamentary seat and the number of ballots issued for its state seats - a difference of 4,616 votes - pressed home the fact that things did not go right in the country's 11 th general election.

"For Kuala Terengganu, the voter turnout was 98.7 percent! And yet we talk about a clean government and so forth," he quipped.

Kamaruddin also pointed out that the number of recounts which led to an eventual overturning of an initial BN victory, suggested a "possible cheating" in the counting process.

He said the electoral roll mix-ups - in which scores of registered voters could not find their names on the roll - should raise concerns that the election was not free and fair.

In any case, Kamaruddin reckoned that the setbacks suffered by the Barisan Alternatif (BA) in this election fitted the pattern of predicted opposition losses following a boundary re-delineation exercise by the Election Commission.

Last April, the Dewan Rakyat passed the motion to accept new electoral boundaries amidst strong protests from opposition parliamentarians.

Keadilan's doomsday?

However, Kamaruddin admitted that 'over-confidence,' miscalculation of the 'Pak Lah factor,' and the mishandling of issues like the Islamic state agenda contributed to PAS' failure.

But he said the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) on opposition politicians, the fear of extremism arising from Sept 11, restrictions on opposition ceramahs and limitations on the distribution of PAS' party organ Harakah should also be considered.

In the context of BN's "zero-level tolerance for opposition or dissent", Kamaruddin said PAS' ability to cling onto its fourth term of power in Kelantan should therefore be viewed positively.

The PAS leader also dismissed the notion that Keadilan's miserable performance indicated its impending doom.

"No doubt it will need to do some soul-searching, but with a little ingenuity, it should be able to make a comeback," he said.

Keadilan only managed to capture one seat in Sunday's polls - the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat - via its president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Other panellists, however, differed on the Keadilan issue.

An analyst with the Gerakan-linked think-tank Sedar, Ong Kian Ming said Keadilan must move away from the Anwar issue in view of the massive swing of popular votes.

Political scientist AB Shamsul described the opposition front Barisan Alternatif (BA) as a "marriage of convenience" which needed a more solid organising the next time around.

He added that the opposition will need to play catch-up with BN, by "repackaging" its issues to better suit this age of advertising.

Media's role

During the question-and-answer session, the media's role and its election coverage came under scrutiny.

The Star

group chief editor Wong Sulong - who chaired the event - commented that the dissemination of information and the choices of information available were "very diverse, much more so than in past elections."

As a result, he said voters were much more informed, adding that a separate conference should be convened to discuss the role of the media in an election.

Earlier, Chandra, touching on this point, said the best ally to any government's anti-corruption drive would be the media.

"Everyone wants to see the big buaya (big fish) caught. Abdullah has caught a few, but whether they will be other big ones remains an open question. We need to create a culture that values integrity ... there is no better ally than a free media.

"But we have yet to see the signs of a truly independent media, free of executive and political control," he said.