Anwar Ibrahim said only fraud can stop his Malaysian opposition from scoring a historic election win as the rival sides today launched a last-ditch campaign blitz on the eve of a tense vote.
Tomorrow's elections are the first in the country's 56 years of independence in which the only government Malaysia has known faces possible defeat.
The uncertainty has given rise to a bitter campaign, with Prime Minister Najib Razak warning of chaos and ethnic strife under the opposition, which has countered with numerous allegations of government vote fraud.
Anwar set the stage for a possibly destabilising challenge to the results, accusing the Barisan Nasional (National Front) regime of cheating to thwart what he called a "democratic revolution", urging voters to turn out en masse.
"It's electoral fraud, the Election Commission's complicity in the crime, attempting to steal the elections from the people," he told AFP in an interview in his home seat in the state of Penang.
He added: "Unless there's a major, massive fraud tomorrow... We will win."
Najib's government denounced the claim.
"The government strongly rejects Anwar's latest allegation because the Elections Commission has gone to great lengths to ensure (tomorrow's) election is free and fair," it said.
Surveys suggest a race too close to predict, with many voters still undecided between Barisan and Anwar's three-party Pakatan Rakyat (People's Pact).
But fraud allegations hang over the vote.
Last week, it was learned that indelible ink meant to mark voters' fingers to prevent multiple voting could be washed off, and Anwar said Barisan was flying tens of thousands of "dubious" voters to pivotal areas.
The government later said the flights were a "get out the vote" drive, but has provided no details.
Anwar was Barisan's charismatic heir-apparent until a 1998 power struggle saw him jailed for six years on sex and graft charges widely criticised as trumped-up.
He later brought his star power to the previously weak opposition, dramatically reversing its fortunes.
