Malaysia votes in closely contested elections
Voters are faced with retaining the ruling party or choosing an untested opposition
Malaysians
are going to the polls in what is widely expected to be the most
closely contested general election in the country's history.
PM Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition is up against Pakatan Rakyat, a three-party alliance headed by Anwar Ibrahim.
Voters are faced with returning the ruling party, in power for 56 years, or choosing an untested opposition.
Ahead of the polls, allegations of various forms of fraud have emerged.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, at a polling station in Kuala Lumpur, said queues formed there well before voting began.
Analysts say that for the first time since Malaysia's independence in 1957, there is a real possibility that the opposition may be able to unseat the ruling party.
The possibility of an end to more than half a century of one-party rule has made this the hardest-fought election anyone can remember, our correspondent says.
The hunger for change, especially among younger Malaysians, has given the opposition real momentum during the campaign, he adds.
But the ruling party has significant advantages, he says, in the cash it has spent on crowd-pleasing hand-outs, and in the way Malaysia's parliamentary system over-represents rural areas, where the government's support is strongest.
Clamour for change?
Barisan Nasional, while credited with bringing economic development and political stability, has also been tainted by allegations of corruption.
Continue reading the main story
Malaysia 2013 polls
- Election is expected to be Malaysia's most keenly contested poll since independence
- PM Najib Razak leads the long-dominant coalition Barisan Nasional (National Front)
- Anwar Ibrahim leads the three-party opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat
- Key issues include corruption, race-based policies that favour Malays and the economy
But it remains to be seen whether
Mr Anwar's coalition, comprising parties of different ethnicities and
religions, can persuade voters to choose an alternative government.
Mr Najib, 59, said he was confident that Malaysians would retain his coalition and even return the two-thirds parliamentary majority Barisan Nasional lost in the 2008 polls.
"I asked myself, why are we getting more support from people?" he said during a campaign rally on Thursday.
"Because for the last four years we have proved that our national transformation has been able to protect and benefit all Malaysians."
He told supporters in his home state of Pahang on Saturday that he wanted to "carry on with the trust" placed in him, saying: "The task of transformation is not over yet."
Meanwhile, Mr Anwar, 65, said people's clamour for change meant that Pakatan Rakyat would emerge victorious.
"God willing, we will succeed," he told the Associated Press news agency.
"People have enough of this semi-authoritarian rule, of complete [government] control of the media, of strong arrogance, of power and endemic corruption."
On a campaign stop in the north on Friday evening he told supporters it was "an election of the people fighting oppressive and corrupt rulers."
'Support the process'
Allegations of election fraud have surfaced before the election. Some of those who voted in advance have complained that indelible ink - supposed to last for days - easily washed off.
The opposition has also accused the government of funding flights for supporters to key states, which the government denies.
"In the past few months we are already hearing rumours and unsubstantiated statements about the presence of foreign nationals being given IDs and then allowed to vote," Ibrahim Suffian, director of the independent pollster Merdeka Center, told Reuters news agency.
Mr Razak's party, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), said the flights had been funded by supporters and not the prime minister himself.
It said they were routine efforts to help voters get home.
Speaking on Saturday in his home state of Penang, Mr Anwar said his party had advised supporters "to remain calm, not to be provoked, not to take the law into their own hands, support the process".
"Unless there's a major massive fraud tomorrow - that is our nightmare - we will win," he told AFP.
Rights group Human Rights Watch also said there had been well-planned attacks against the country's independent media ahead of the polls.
It said on Thursday that readers were unable to access several online news sites providing coverage of opposition candidates.
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