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Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian government restrictions on free speech, freedom of assembly and the media will deny citizens a fair vote in general elections this week, a rights group said on Wednesday.
Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said, "Once again, elections in Malaysia are grossly unfair to the opposition."
She added, "Malaysia's ruling coalition is too comfortable with the status quo to allow reforms that would level the playing field."
Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition is considered certain to be re-elected in Saturday's poll, but risks a backlash by Buddhist ethnic Chinese and Hindu ethnic Indians, who complain of religious and racial inequality in the mainly Muslim nation.
The opposition, which wants to deny Barisan a two-thirds majority in parliament, the level needed to change the constitution, hopes to draw a protest vote over rising food and fuel costs, street crimes and an influx of cheap foreign labour.
Pearson said, "Voters in Malaysia deserve a chance for every vote to count and count equally," adding, "given the vast array of anomalies in the electoral rolls, this looks increasingly unlikely."
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