The 17 percent of votes garnered by newcomer Keadilan in the Sarawak election yesterday is a "stepping stone" for the party to gain a foothold in the state, said a party leader today.

Azmin Ali, who is a Keadilan supreme council member, said although defeated by Barisan Nasional, the party had managed to secure more than 37,000 votes in the 25 constituencies where it had contested.

BN won all but two seats in yesterday's election, a better showing than the previous elections in 1996 where the ruling coalition won 58 seats.

DAP, which bagged three seats in the last elections, managed to only win only one. The other opposition parties, including Keadilan, returned home empty handed.

However, Azmin refused to comment on the fact that 11 out of 25 Keadilan candidates lost their deposit.

A candidate has to garner at least eight percent of the overall votes to keep their RM3,000 deposit.

Azmin said the party's Sarawak leadership has been instructed to conduct a post-mortem on their performance and submit a report to the party.

Physical assaults

Echoing other opposition leaders, Azmin claimed that fear tactics and bias media coverage had attributed to their failure.

"On the eve of the polling day, our candidate, Ahmad Lukman Abang Ibrahim for Demak Laut, was beaten up by eight gangsters who are believed to be from BN, " he said, adding that a police report was lodged following the assault.

In another incident, Azmin claimed that two party workers were assaulted with a parang, also believed to be the work of BN supporters.

The workers have been hospitalised and one of them received six stitches to his head, said Azmin.

"BN's allegation that we brought in a wild campaigning culture is baseless and unfounded. They themselves had threatened and intimidated the voters," he lamented.

Meanwhile, PAS president Fadzil Noor cried foul over the media coverage on opposition parties who portrayed them as "enemies of the nation".

'Illegal immigrants'

In a press statement today, Fadzil said that BN had "shamelessly" used the media and government agencies in their campaign.

Various kinds of threats and accusations were thrown to the opposition campaigners and they were treated like "illegal immigrants", he added.

"We have been accused of bringing a new culture to the state but BN exploited the people to the extent that nobody dared to stand up and voice their objection effectively," he said, adding that the people in Sarawak live in poverty while the leaders bask in luxury.

"Even after Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself was brought to visit one of the poorest areas - Pulau Bruit - they (BN) still claim that they have developed the state in an excellent manner," he said.

Fadzil also criticised the BN leaders including the premier, for ignoring national interests by instigating a split between the Peninsular and East Malaysia through their campaigning, hence destroying any effort in uniting the people.

"BN's campaign will leave an adverse impact on inter-state relationships," said Fadzil, who added that PAS plans to set up more divisions and branches in Sarawak.