Anwar says he's moving toward forming new gov't

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today said he was moving towards forming a new government after landmark elections, with the help of defectors from the ruling coalition.
"I don't know how soon we can form the new government but we are moving in that direction," the former deputy premier, who was sacked and jailed a decade ago, told AFP in an interview.
The three-party opposition alliance made unprecedented gains in March 8 polls, seizing more than a third of parliamentary seats and four more states from the dominant Barisan Nasional coalition.
Anwar said that coalition lawmakers from Sabah and Sarawak had contacted him to discuss switching sides. The power bloc there could unseat the government if it changed hands.
"The MPs from there have come here to see me," Anwar said, adding that he was in no hurry to become the next prime minister, but that the opposition would already be in power if the polls had been clean and fair.
"I am maintaining that if there was no fraud in the election, we would have won. If we had two percent more votes we would have formed the new government," he said.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dismissed Anwar's plans, and downplayed suggestions of splits within Umno after the resignation of its secretary-general Radzi Sheikh Ahmad.

BN won't be toppled, says Abdullah

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today dismissed talks that the government is in danger of being toppled by the rumoured massive defection of his Barisan Nasional parliamentarians to the opposition.
“Why should the government be toppled? This government is very strong, we have the support too. We don’t go around purchasing people,” he told reporters after chairing a two-hour cabinet meeting, the first after the March 8 polls, in Putrajaya this afternoon.
The premier said this when he was asked to comment on opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim’s claims that a number of BN MPs are ready to cross over to the opposition parties.
“He (Anwar) claims so many things, let him claim whatever he wants,” said Abdullah, who was accompanied by his deputy Najib Abdul Razak.
The opposition parties, which jointly controlled 82 parliamentary seats now, will be able to take over the federal government from BN if they gain another 30 seats.
In its dismay electoral performance on the March 8 polls, BN for the first time lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament. The coalition also lost control of four states to the opposition on top of failing to retain Kelantan despite much hopes. BN now has 140 seats.


tunku : this moron going around and offering money to buy out BN members of parliament.they had offer someone big gun from UMNO for RM50million but the big gun turn them down as he remain loyal to his party(UMNO)and does not believe in anwar.he's claiming that the polls had not been clean and fair, if it was then opposition won't win in 5 STATES and with 82 parliamentary seats.