As Sarawakians cast their ballots in the ninth state elections today, opposition leader Lim Kit Siang has made a startling call.

He wants the Election Commission (EC) to consider suspending the polls because of the alleged violation of election laws by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

He claimed that newspapers linked to BN had violated the rules on campaigning by publishing reports of BN leaders appealing for support.

Lim, who just returned from Sarawak, said the papers 'openly defied' the EC and election law which prohibit any election campaigning after midnight on polling day.

" Utusan Sarawak and Eastern Times today carried page-after-page of reports of BN leaders campaigning for election support and calling on voters to vote for BN candidates," he said.

Eastern Times had featured these reports on 16 pages, according to Lim in a statement.

One-sided coverage

"This is a defiance and test of the authority and integrity of EC to uphold the election law and credibility," said the veteran politician.

Referring to EC chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman's statement yesterday that the commission had no control over the media, he said the former '"cannot be more wrong".

"Unfair, one-sided, biased and tendentious media reporting is one principal reason why the ninth general election in Sarawak does not qualify to be described as free, fair and clean," Lim noted.

In view of this, he asked the EC chief to consider suspending the state election, "at least in constituencies where the two dailies have the heaviest distribution", including Balingian.

Balingian is in the constituency of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.