Malaysia’s opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday 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.
A high court in Kedah state will hear a challenge on Aug. 19 asking it to invalidate the result in a seat that was won by his Keadilan party in March 8 general elections.
Anwar said that if the court declares the result null and void he will contest the ensuing by-election.
“My plan is to contest in the Kulim-Bandar Baharu seat. I am optimistic of victory,” he said. “The constituency neighbors my hometown of Permatang Pauh in Penang. I am familiar with the locals there.”
A return to parliament would be the next step in the political rehabilitation of Anwar, who was sacked as deputy premier in 1998 and later jailed on sodomy and corruption charges.
The sex conviction was overturned but the corruption count barred him from public office until April.
Anwar, who was considered the heir apparent to then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad when he was fired, was expected to formally announce his plan at a party rally in the constituency later yesterday.
However, he admitted that new sodomy allegations leveled against him by a 23-year-old male former aide had put an “additional burden” on his family and his return to politics.
He said the claims were fabricated to prevent him from seizing power and showed he posed a serious threat to Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s coalition, which has ruled Malaysia for more than 50 years.
The opposition parties — Keadilan, the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) — humbled the governing Barisan Nasional coalition with unprecedented gains in the March elections.
Rallied by Anwar, the parties won more than a third of parliamentary seats and five of the 13 states in the general election, delivering Barisan Nasional its worst result since 1969.
In April, they announced a strategic alliance and Anwar said that PAS and DAP leaders had promised to mobilize their supporters for a by-election.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS