Ahli Parlimen BN mula hantar SMS pada Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR, 29 Ogos (Hrkh) - Beberapa ahli Parlimen Barisan Nasional (BN) didakwa menghantar SMS kepada pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat sejak Ketua Umum KeADILan, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim selepas beliau menang dalam pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh 26 Ogos lalu.

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Anwar angkat sumpah di Parlimen hari ini

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Anwar Ibrahim menang besar, majoriti lebih 15,000

PERMATANG PAUH, 26 Ogos (Hrkh) - Keputusan rasmi SPR yang diterima adalah Ketua Umum KeADILan, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim menang sebanyak 31,195 undi manakala calon BN mendapat 15,524 undi manakala calon bebas hanya 92 undi. Majoriti undi yang dimenangi Anwar adalah 15,671 undi.

Source: Harakah Daily - http://www.harakahdaily.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=016661&Itemid=85

Anwar Back in Contention with Poll Win

Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader, took the first step on Tuesday towards his goal of trying to seize power from the long-ruling National Front government by taking a parliamentary seat in a by-election after a decade’s absence.

The solid size of his winning majority against a government and an independent candidate is likely to strengthen his effort to persuade disaffected government MPs to support him in a no-confidence vote against the administration of Abdullah Badawi by mid-September.

Mr Anwar had been tipped to win the election in the Permatang Pauh constituency, located near the port of Penang in north-west Malaysia, that had been represented by him or his wife since 1982.

He won the seat by a margin of more than 16,000 votes, compared with his wife’s last victory in general elections in March with a 13,400 vote margin, in spite of a lower voter turnout.

The former deputy prime minister had been barred from standing for political office until earlier this year after he was imprisoned in a power struggle with Mahathir Mohamad, former prime minister, in 1998.

It remains uncertain, however, when Mr Anwar will return to parliament. He has been seeking to be sworn in this week ahead of the government’s annual budget announcement on Friday. But the parliamentary speaker has suggested he would not be seated until October.

In the meantime, Mr Anwar is scheduled to appear in court next month to answer charges of sodomy with a former male aide. If convicted, he could be stripped of his parliamentary seat.

Mr Anwar has vowed to call a vote of no-confidence against the government by September 16. But there are signs of dissent within his three-party alliance, with the Islamic Party of Malaysia (Pas) seen as possibly ready to defect to the government side.

Pas has complained about being pushed aside in a power-sharing agreement with coalition partners in the five state governments that the opposition alliance won in March.

The alliance is split by ideological differences. Mr Anwar’s People’s Justice party is multi-racial, while the Democratic Action party is a secular ethnic Chinese-dominated party and Pas represents conservative Islamic elements of the country’s Muslim Malay majority.

If Mr Anwar fails to mount a successful challenge against the government by his mid-September deadline, he could suffer a loss of credibility while strengthening the odds that the government will remain in office.

Source: FT - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91b5c8dc-7366-11dd-8a66-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

KEPUTUSAN PILIHANRAYA KECIL PULAU PINANG P44:PERMATANG PAUH

1.Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (KeADILan) 31,195 undi.
2.Hanafi Mamat (AKIM) 92 undi.
3.Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah (BN)15,524 undi.

Jumlah mengundi: 47,258
Peratus keluar mengundi: 81 peratus
Undi rosak: 447 undi
Majoriti: 15,671 undi

Penyandang: Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail (KeADILan)
Undi diperolehi 8 Mac 2008: 30,348
Majoriti: 13,398 undi

Source: Anwar Ibrahim's Blog - http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2008/08/26/keputusan-rasmi-prk-p44-permatang-pauh/

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim wins election, despite smears

Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader disgraced and humiliated by accusations of corruption and sexual misconduct, was set to be restored to office today, in an election victory that brings to an end eleven years of political exile.

Incomplete results showed that Mr Anwar had easily won a by-election which will enable him to take full control of the opposition coalition and puts him a position to attempt an unprecedented take over of Malaysia’s parliament.

It also raises the stakes in his latest round of legal troubles – a new accusation of homosexuality, one of the charges which ruined his career in 1998. This evening’s expected victory in a constituency in the state of Penang demonstrates that many Malaysians believe what Mr Anwar has insisted all along – that the charges are a crude government plot to disgrace the politician with the biggest chance of bringing change to Malaysian politics.

With most votes counted, Mr Anwar had an unassailable lead of at least 15,000 votes. “This vote means Malaysians want the truth,” Mr Anwar said after the close of voting. “It is Anwar versus the entire government. God willing, I am confident of winning.”

Homosexuality, or sodomy, is illegal in Malaysia, and in 1999 Mr Anwar was sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted of sex with his male driver. He always insisted that the charge had been trumped up the year before by the ruling United Malay National Organisation (Umno), because of the challenge which Mr Anwar, the deputy prime minister, was planning against his boss, the then prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad.

In 2004, the conviction was overturned by Malaysia’s top court, although Mr Anwar, who was also convicted of corruption, was barred from standing for parliament until April this year. In March, however, the opposition coalition, of which was de facto leader, achieved its greatest ever electoral success, coming close to toppling Umno and drastically undermining the leadership of the current prime minister, Abdullah Badawi.

Mr Anwar was negotiating with government supporters in the hope that they would change sides and claimed that the opposition would be able to seize control of parliament in September. Then, in June, a 23-year old aide to Mr Anwar filed a police report alleging that he had had sex with him in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur. Mr Anwar indignantly denied the claim.

To his enemies, the sodomy allegations are further evidence of his unfitness for office in a Muslim majority country where homosexuality is regarded by many as abhorrent. Among his supporters, they are regarded as a crude and transparent ploy to smear and foil once again Malaysia’s most brilliant leader in a generation.

A telephone poll by the independent Merdeka Centre think-tank suggested that the latter are in the majority, at least in the by-election constituency, Permatang Pauh – 59 percent of respondents said that the sodomy allegations were politically motivated.

But Mr Anwar’s victory also owes much to the failings of Umno under its current leader, the prime minister, Abdullah Badawi.

Mr Anwar has promised to deal with record inflation and to reduce the cost of fuel, which went up by 41 percent in June. He also proposes doing away with a system of institutionalised racial discrimination which gives education and business advantages to members of the Malay majority, of which he is one, at the expense of the Chinese and Indian minorities.

Source: TimesOnline,UK - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4613057.ece

Malaysia's Anwar heads for parliament after election victory

PERMATANG PAUH, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim won a "landslide" victory Tuesday in a by-election to return him to parliament, and said he was on track to oust a weakened government.

The vote in his home state of Penang cemented a stunning comeback for Anwar, who was sacked as deputy premier a decade ago and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges widely seen as politically motivated.

"We declare victory, the margin is very huge," said Tian Chua, information chief of Anwar's Keadilan party which leads a three-member opposition alliance.

"I think it's a landslide victory," he said, adding that Anwar's share of the vote could rise as high as 70 percent.

The official tally showed Anwar had won 27,977 votes, against 13,426 for his opponent from the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has dominated Malaysian politics for half a century.

"Yes of course we have lost... we were the underdogs going into this race," said Muhammad Muhammad Taib, information chief of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) which leads the coalition.

Anwar said he had outgunned the government despite a "sickening" campaign that focused on new sodomy allegations against him, and was marred by allegations of vote-buying and electoral fraud.

The opposition has also accused the coalition of attempting to undermine Anwar by stoking tensions between Muslim Malays who dominate the population, and minority ethnic Chinese and Indian citizens.

"This is a clear indication that people of all races have rejected the communal politics of Barisan Nasional. It is a clear endorsement of our reform agenda. We are on track to take over the government," Anwar told AFP.

Anwar had been widely expected to win back his old seat of Permatang Pauh, which was held by his wife during his political exile. She stood aside last month to allow him to contest, after a ban on holding public office expired.

However, political pundits had said the coalition's no-holds-barred campaign could have impacted on Anwar's winning margin, which will be seen as an indicator of his ability to shrug off the sodomy charges.

"I thank the voters, the wisdom of the people has prevailed. The win shows the people reject the sodomy allegations thrown at my husband," Anwar's wife Wan Azizah said.

Analysts said that even after he returns to parliament, the charismatic 61-year-old faces further daunting hurdles including a looming trial on the new sexual misconduct charges.

The opposition leader has said that the accusations, levelled by a 23-year-old male aide, have been concocted by the government to thwart his ambitions of seizing power with the help of defecting lawmakers.

His original sodomy conviction was overturned by the nation's highest court in 2004, allowing him to go free after spending six years in jail.

He then spent several years behind the scenes, before storming back onto the political stage at the helm of a reinvigorated opposition.

In March general elections the opposition alliance seized control of five states and a third of parliamentary seats, in an unprecedented result that shook the coalition and put Anwar within striking distance of seizing power.

He needs to secure the support of at least 30 defectors in order to oust the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has faced calls to quit after the general elections debacle.

The ballot in Permatang Pauh was held under tight security, after both sides traded allegations of abuse and attacks on their supporters. Some 4,500 police were deployed to keep the peace.

Despite the focus on the sodomy allegations, Anwar's star power was undimmed, and he drew big crowds to nightly rallies during the intense 10-day campaign.

Source: AFP - http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jacv7L2zK6_pmxcWx_USPCrqXDAA

Anwar Malaysia election win boosts push for power

PERMATANG PAUH, Malaysia (Reuters) - Malaysia's best known opposition politician, Anwar Ibrahim, scored a bigger than expected victory in a key by-election on Tuesday, boosting his chances of becoming the country's next prime minister.

Anwar, whose campaign to win the seat vacated by his wife has been dogged by charges of sodomy, won a majority of 15,671 over his government opponent and he said he would initiate a vote to topple the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for five decades.

"The message is clear, we in Permatang Pauh and in Malaysia, we demand change for freedom and justice," Anwar told a jubilant crowd of thousands of people gathered in a football stadium who were chanting "reformasi" (reform) and "merdeka" (freedom).

"We want an independent judiciary, we want the economy to benefit the vast majority not the corrupt few," Anwar, who was wearing a colourful batik shirt, told the cheering crowd.

Political analysts had said the man who was once a rising star in the government and is now seeking to oust it from power had needed to win by at least the 13,388 majority his wife won when she contested the seat in March's general election.

That Anwar won by much more gives him a real shot at tempting the 30 government legislators to join his three-party coalition and that will enable him to win power in a confidence vote that he has said he will call for September.

"I think he feels he has to ride the momentum and given what he has experienced over the past few weeks, he will be more convinced than ever that he has to do that," said Ooi Kee Beng, a Malaysian expert at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

Anwar's meteoric rise to power ended abruptly when he was imprisoned in the late 1990s on what he says were trumped up sodomy and corruption charges.

He will again appear in court on September 10 and denies the new sodomy charges made by a 23-year old male aide.

Anwar says that if he wins power he will sweep away economic and social privileges for ethnic Malays in education and the civil service, policies that he endorsed when in power, but which he now says have damaged the economy and the people they were supposed to help.

While the Barisan Nasional government looks rudderless and divided, Anwar at least has real economic policies and a vision for the nation, political analysts said.

"I would at least say that he has a vision of what the future economy should look like, he has a roadmap," said Yang Razali Kassim Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University.

"Given the paucity of ideas in BN (Barisan Nasional), Anwar comes across as an appealing leader, with the experience to boot," Kassim said of the man who was once a liberal-minded finance minister.

Whether nervous investors who have pushed the Malaysian ringgit and the stock market lower share those views is another matter, however, and many are concerned that there could be a prolonged period of political instability.

BARIISAN CANDIDATE DEFIANT, BUT BEATEN

The candidate for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition had conceded earlier, although he said he had expected to win.

"I thought that people would vote to get their problems solved but they seemed more attracted to propaganda, promises and innuendo from the opposition," said Arif Shah.

The defeat is expected to open more wounds in the ruling coalition, still reeling from a March general election when it lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority to a resurgent and united opposition.

"The BN has been rattled enough by the March 8 elections. Some parties in the ruling coalition have been threatening to quit the BN. Talk of defections may turn to reality now," said Kassim, who expects Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to be replaced.

Source: Reuters - http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Anwar_Malaysia_election_win_boosts_push_for_power.html?siteSect=143&sid=9615330&cKey=1219764148000&ty=ti

Anwar wins Malaysia by-election - official result

PERMATANG PAUH, Malaysia (Reuters) - Malaysia's leading opposition figure, Anwar Ibrahim, won a crucial key by-election on Tuesday, boosting his attempt to break the government's lock on power.

Anwar, whose campaign has been overshadowed by charges he sodomised a male aide, captured the Permatang Pauh parliament seat in the northern state of Penang, beating a ruling coalition candidate by a 15,671 vote margin, the Election Commission said.

Anwar polled 31,195 votes against 15,524 for the government candidate.

Source: Reuters - http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-35183020080826

Anwar back in Malaysian parliament - AP

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has won a landslide victory in a special election, marking a triumphant return to parliament more than a decade after he was thrown out for alleged sex crimes.

The Election Commission announced that Anwar had won 31,195 of the estimated 47,000 votes cast in the election in a semi-rural district in the northern state of Penang that has been his stronghold since 1982.

His rival, Arif Shah Omar Shah of the governing National Front coalition, got 15,524 votes. A third independent candidate got 92 votes.

Anwar's victory strengthens his campaign to topple the government and become the next prime minister even though he is facing a new charge of having sex with a male aide.

Source : AP - http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hA4i8e8nbm4tDCnpZz09oY7JNr7g