Now, we may have got the White House attention

Frustrated Malaysians flood White House site to complain of polls fraud

Malaysians have complained to the White House’s online petition site about election fraud in Election 2013, drawing more than 222,000 signatures within a week to become the site’s second-most popular issue, according to the Associated Press.

US President Barack Obama’s online petition page requires just 100,000 signatures for an official government response.

According to AP, the Obama administration’s “We the People” site was started in 2011 as a project in open government for the Internet age.

Though clearly intended for US citizens, the guidelines on gathering online signatories remain broad enough to hearten activists overseas who — frustrated with their own governments — hope to raise the international profile of their cases, according to AP.

The site does not ask for one’s nationality.

Individuals only need to be 13 or older and have a verified email address to create an account to initiate a petition or sign one.

The White House has said it will give equal treatment to petitions from overseas.

The US government has not yet responded to the Malaysian petition.

Any hopes for US condemnation of the election results evaporated this week when the U.S. State Department recognized the polling results, while acknowledging allegations of irregularities, according to AP.

The petition “spoke out the dissatisfactions to the international communities successfully,” virologist and the petition’s apparent organizer, Kuan Ping Ang, said on her Facebook page as reported by AP.

Barisan Nasional (BN) won last week’s polls but lost the popular vote stakes to Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

BN won just under 47 per cent of the votes while PR parties scored over half of all votes.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PR parties have organised two mammoth rallies - in Petaling Jaya and Penang - this week to protest the election results which they claimed was rigged.

PR parties have complained about irregular voting patterns, suspicious handling of ballot boxes and other issues with both DAP and PAS mulling election petitions to contest the results.

PR officials say they are disputing up to 29 election results and the rallies, which began in Selangor last Wednesday, is set to continue with the next one in Perak today.

[Source: The MI]