Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is compiling evidence on the alleged violent conduct of Barisan Nasional (BN) party workers during the recently concluded Ijok by-election.

The opposition party plans to present this to the police as well as the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) soon.

"We are in the process of making full documentation of the videos. We are still gathering the other clips that are unreported," PKR Youth information bureau chief Latheefa Koya told a press conference at the party headquarters in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, today.

"After we have compiled them, we will hand it to Suhakam and for the police to investigate. We'll also follow up with the police on the reports we have lodged," she said.

The press conference was held in response to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's political secretary Osman Desa's call for the dissolution of PKR over its alleged violent approach during the April 28 by-election.

"The Malays cannot accept the culture of thuggery and intimidation adopted by the opposition during the campaign in Ijok which clearly reflected their leaders' lack of integrity," he had said.

According to him, opposition supporters had resorted to violence by stopping busses carrying BN supporters, hurling objects and using various aggressive methods to win votes.

Lopsided reporting

However, Latheefa was disappointed that the mainstream media only chose to highlight BN's accusations and not the opposition's.

"This is to remind the media that we have more evidence that BN was violent against our supporters and voters," she claimed.

Except for the Sun , no mainstream newspaper reporter was present at today's press conference.

Commenting on this, Latheefa said she was surprised by the poor media turnout.

"I suspect it's a directive from the top authorities to not allow the mainstream media to cover any issues on violence done by BN in Ijok," she added.

In the by-election called following the death of incumbent K Sivalingam, BN's K Parthiban defeated PKR candidate Khalid Ibrahim with a 1,850-majority vote.

Khalid Ibrahim, who was also present at the press conference, related his experience in a few scuffles that happened during his campaign.

This included incidents involving blogger Jeff Ooi and photographer Paul Choo who were injured by a water bottle and having his entourage disrupted in Ladang Coalfields.

Several videos of alleged violence by BN supporters from malaysiakini and TV PAS were also shown and distributed to reporters.

The videos range from the water bottles and sticks being thrown on nomination day to the attack on PKR supporters in Sungai Darah on polling day.