KUALA LUMPUR, NOV 11: Malaysia's parliament was dissolved on Thursday to pave way for the southeast Asian nation's first electoral test since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad dismissed his former deputy and imposed capital control.Mahathir on Wednesday announced early general elections to take advantage of a robust economic rebound and avoid facing more than half a million new voters who join the rolls next year.Leaders of an Opposition alliance, caught off-guard like the rest of Malaysia by Wednesday's announcement of a snap election, met on Thursday to plot a hoped-for political breakthrough. Parliamentary Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said Alternative Front chiefs decided to form a single secretariat to coordinate the campaign.Mahathir, springing a surprise on virtually everyone, announced Wednesday that parliament would be dissolved on Thursday. The date of the election is to be set on Friday by the Election Commission.``As the Opposition we can only be as prepared as we can be,'' Lim, secretary-general of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), said. ``The Barisan Nasional (ruling National Front coalition) controls the three Ms money, the mass media and the machinery of government.'' State radio and television has announced that it will not carry party messages, only what it terms information about the government's work.Lim said the DAP faced a ``grave shortage'' of funds but nevertheless saw an ``unprecedented opportunity'' to break the decades-long dominance of the National Front.The DAP, the National Justice Party headed by the wife of jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, the Parti Islam SeMalaysia and the Malaysian People's Party have united to form the Alternative Front.It admits it has no hope of unseating the National Front, which holds 166 of the 192 parliamentary seats. But it aims to end the two-thirds parliamentary majority which the ruling coalition has enjoyed for three decades. Despite an improving economy, analysts say Mahathir, 73, faces his toughest challenge of recent years after the sacking and jailing of his charismatic deputy, Anwar, in September 1998.The move split the bedrock Malay constituency. Mahathir has staked his political reputation on retaining the two-thirds majority. On Wednesday he derided the Opposition as the ``Alternative Broken Front'' and predicted infighting among its disparate parties.A spokesman for the National Justice Party said the secretariat aimed to prevent policy contradictions among the four parties ``which could be used by the ruling party as a weapon to attack the Alternative Front''. Lim said the alliance had finalised parliamentary seat allocations for peninsular Malaysia and state Assembly seat allocations should be finalised in a day or two. They would meet again Saturday. He said November 27 or 28 were possible polling dates but called for a longer campaign period of at least three weeks.In the past three elections, campaigning has lasted just 10 days. Lim said another 10-day period would be a second blow to Malaysians after the exclusion from this election of 650,000 new voters not due to come on the rolls till next year.
