Hundreds of cases of Malaysian election violence have been reported since campaigning for tightly contested May 5 polls got under way at the weekend, police were quoted saying on Wednesday.
A total of 387 incidents were reported in the first three days of the two-week campaign, which kicked off Saturday, and at least 15 people have been arrested over the violence, national police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf told The Star newspaper.
“They were in possession of weapons such as machetes and suspected of slashing rival party supporters and criminal intimidation, mostly while putting up flags and banners,” Ramli said.
He added that hundreds more incidents had been reported earlier, between the April 13 dissolution of parliament and the official start to campaigning.
The pro-government newspaper gave no indication of who was perpetrating the violence, but the opposition has complained that their supporters were the victims in most attacks. AFP has been unable to confirm this.
Malaysia is bracing for long-anticipated elections that have raised speculation of the country’s first change of regime since independence from Britain in 1957.
