Permatang Pauh Election

PERMATANG PAUH BY-ELECTION, 26 AUGUST 2008

A by-election will be held for the Dewan Rakyat parliamentary seat of Permatang Pauh on August 26, 2008 with nomination day on August 16, 2008. The seat of Permatang Pauh in the Dewan Rakyat, fell vacant after the resignation of the incumbent, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, on 31 July 2008. Wan Azizah was the Leader of the Opposition as well as the President of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), a component party of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition. The by-election will contested by the PR candidate former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. This election has been dubbed "the mother of all by-elections" by the media due to the potentially significant implication of the election as well as the high profile of Anwar Ibrahim.

Background of the by-election

On July 27, 2008 Anwar said that he aims to return to parliament for the first time in a decade later this year if a court orders a by-election near his home town. The seat mentioned would probably be Kulim-Bandar Baharu constituency next to his hometown of Permatang Pauh in Penang. Anwar Ibrahim on July 31, 2008 said he would contest a by-election for the parliamentary seat of Permatang Pauh vacated by his wife in order to expedite his return to political office. His wife Wan Azizah said she handed her letter of resignation to the parliament speaker on Thursday 31 July. Party officials said the by-election must be held within 60 days. The Election Commission (EC) has fixed the nomination day for the Permatang Pauh by-election on Aug 16, with polling to be held ten days later on Aug 26. Some 58,459 voters in the Permatang Pauh constituency would be eligible to vote on Aug 26, a working Tuesday, adding that the figure also include 490 postal voters.

Anwar Ibrahim was charged on August 7, 2008 for sodomy under Section 377B of the Penal Code, fueling speculations over a possible conspiracy on the part of the Malaysian government to derail his election campaign.

Background of Permatang Pauh

Parliamentary seat P.44 Permatang Pauh lies in the federal state of Penang. In the 2008 election, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (a component party of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition), garnered 30,338 votes, defeating Firdaus Ismail of the United Malay National Organization (UMNO) (a component party of the Barisan Nasional coalition) (16,950 votes) .

Pre-nomination speculation

Barisan Nasional

A former Permatang Pauh Umno leader said the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the by-election for the seat on Aug 26 must have three characteristics to succeed. Firstly, he must be willing to cover all areas and tackle the young voters as most of them are "fence-sitters." Secondly, the candidate must be influential and know all the secrets and strategies of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Thirdly, he must have a clean record and be acceptable to friends and foes in Permatang Pauh.

Former Parti Keadilan Rakyat Youth leader, Ezam Mohd Nor has vowed to do all he can to deny Anwar victory and return to active politics. He even offered himself as the Umno candidate although he pledged to support anyone picked by the party. The by-election is by far the best platform for Ezam to convince Umno members unhappy with, and suspicious of his return to Umno, that he is sincere in fighting for the cause. Umno Seberang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah is the Barisan Nasional leadership’s choice to take on PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election on Aug 26. BN deputy chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak made the announcement on August 13.

Nominations

Anwar Ibrahim was officially announced as a PKR candidate in the constituency of Permatang Pauh in the state of Penang. Joining him in the race are UMNO's two-term assemblyman Arif Shah Omar Shah and Hanafi Mamat, a movement leader from a splinter group of the opposition islamic party PAS. The former deputy premier officially cleared the first hurdle after his nomination papers were accepted by the returning officer despite five objections from the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. Anwar's 10,000 strong supporters celebrated with thunderous cheers amid a sea of blue, the BN supporters on the other side of the political divide were clearly outnumbered.

Ibraham said: "Barisan Nasional is clearly overwhelmed. It's no longer a by-election. It's more than that" Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak admitted the ruling party was the underdog: "It is going to be an uphill task but nothing is impossible in politics."

Election Campaigning

The election campaign has been marred by violence and accusations of dirty tricks. Keadilan information chief Tian Chua said Anwar had hoped for a landslide victory but worried that turnout could be low -- partly because the government has made the highly unusual decision to hold the vote on a weekday. The opposition has accused the government of vote-buying and stoking racial tensions -- a grave charge in Malaysia, which is dominated by Muslim Malays but also home to large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. Anwar has accused the government of painting him as a "Chinese agent", and Tian said a banner had been sighted depicting Anwar with the face of a pig, together with the young man who has accused him of sodomy. The government says its supporters have been subjected to abuse, and deputy premier Najib Razak has been taunted on the campaign trail over alleged links with a Mongolian woman murdered in 2006. Anwar has met several hundred Muslim voters in Permatang Pauh and told them he had been forbidden by Islamic religious teachers to take an oath on the Quran. A Muslim cleric who witnessed Mr Saiful Bukhari Azlan swearing to having being sodomised by Anwar Ibrahim has said the oath was not taken according to procedure. The cleric cast doubt on the oath's validity, saying he thought it could be part of a political conspiracy. Mr Ramlang Porigi, who said he was one of the four imams at the Federal Territory mosque who were instructed to witness the oath-taking, explained yesterday that, to the best of his knowledge, both parties had to be present.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has urged the Election Commission to take action against Barisan Nasional candidate for the Permatang Pauh by-election Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah for allegedly engaging in money politics. Lim said Arif Shah had flouted the election regulations by offering cash to the electorate in Permatang Pauh. He was responding to reports in Chinese dailies that Arif Shah was allegedly offering between RM50 and RM500 to some people in the constituency.