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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Malaysia's Anwar set to win Parliament by-election
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-26 09:49 A telephone poll conducted of 544 voters by the independent Merdeka Center think-tank from Friday to Sunday found 57 percent of the Permatang Pauh voters do not believe in the sodomy allegation and 59 percent said it was politically motivated. Sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in jail in Malaysia. No date has been set for Anwar's trial on the charge. A majority 57 percent also believed that Anwar is "capable of bringing change that will benefit the people regardless of race," said Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian. Anwar is assured of most votes of the minority Chinese and Indians. The Malay voters, who form 69 percent of the constituency's 58,459 electorate, are split between Anwar and Arif Shah. Campaigning ends Monday midnight. "I think it's a test of who protects the Malay interests the most, to which party will they entrust the political future," Ibrahim said. Still, references to the sodomy charge figured prominently in Arif Shah's campaign, which was led by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, anointed by Abdullah to succeed him in 2010, provided the government survives that long. Tuesday's election also was a gauge of public anger against Abdullah's administration, which the opposition has painted as corrupt, inefficient and uncaring toward minorities. In general elections on March 8, Anwar's three-party opposition alliance won an unprecedented 82 of Parliament's 222 seats, 30 short of a majority, as well as control of five states. Among the seats won by the opposition was Permatang Pauh by Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. Anwar could not contest the March elections because of a ban on holding political office stemming from the previous corruption conviction for which he spent six years in jail. The ban expired in April this year. In June, Wan Azizah resigned her seat to allow Anwar to contest it. |
