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Malaysian opposition fears territorial dispute will delay poll
Sydney Morning Herald - March 3, 2013
Another 14 people were killed 150 kilometres away in another district in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Friday after members of a Philippine Muslim clan had occupied a village there for three weeks.
As police tried to ease concerns on Sunday, saying the situation was under control, Malaysia's opposition said it was worried Prime Minister Najib Razak might delay elections in the state where his ruling coalition is facing a strong challenge in elections expected to be called within weeks.
Tian Chua, vice president of the opposition People's Justice Party, told the Malaysia Chronicle: "We don't know what the end game is but one possibility is that they might use [the violence] to delay voting in the general election."
Opposition MPs are confident that Mr Najib's coalition has been losing ground in Sabah and Sarawak, another state in Malaysian Borneo, to opposition parties in what is expected to be the tightest election race in more than half a century since the country gained independence from Britain.
Resource-rich Sabah will be a key election battleground where the ruling coalition holds 22 of the federal parliament's 222 seats.
Staggered elections were held in Malaysia in 1969 after race riots broke out in Kuala Lumpur.
Conflicting and confusing claims have swirled around Sabah's crisis since about 200 Filipino followers of the Sultan of Sulu, some of them armed, arrived in the village of Lahad Datu on February 9, saying ownership documents from the late 1800s proved the territory was theirs.
In a gunfight in the village on Friday 12 Filipinos and two Malaysian police commanders were killed.
On Saturday Mr Najib warned members of the group who were on the run in the state that his government would offer "no compromise – either they surrender or face the consequences."
Police said the five policemen killed in the coastal village of Semporna on Saturday had been ambushed. Two of the attackers were killed, police said.
In Manila, 74 year-old Jamalul Kiram III, who insists he is the Sultan of Sulu, told reporters his supporters will never abandon Sabah.
"If they have to die, then they will die. They are sacrificing [themselves] for whatever may happen," he said after Philippine President Benigno Aquino had ordered the Filipinos to leave Sabah immediately.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos work to clear timber and work the plantations on Sabah which has oil and gas fields and where Chinese companies have been investing in hydro-power and coal mining.
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