Malaysia’s opposition declared its leader Anwar Ibrahim had won a “landslide” victory yesterday in a by-election to return him to parliament after a decade-long absence.
Anwar, who has made a stunning comeback after being sacked as deputy prime minister and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges, said he was now on track to seize power from a weakened government.
“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.
Chua said that with half of the vote counted, Anwar had garnered at least 65 percent of the ballots and that the figure could rise as high as 70 percent once all the 38,144 votes cast were tallied.
Early results from the official count showed Anwar had won 12,748 votes, against 5,380 for his opponent from the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has dominated Malaysian politics for half a century.
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,” he said.
Anwar had been widely expected to win back his old seat of Permatang Pauh, which was held by his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail during his political exile. She won re-election in March but stood aside last month to allow him to contest, after a ban on holding public office expired.
However, political pundits had said that the coalition’s no-holds-barred campaign could have had an impact on his winning margin, which will be seen as an indicator of his ability to shrug off the sodomy charges.
Analysts said that even after he returns to parliament as the formal leader of a three-member opposition alliance, Anwar faces further daunting hurdles, including a looming trial on the new sodomy allegations.
The opposition leader has said that the charges, leveled by a 23-year-old male aide, were concocted by the government to thwart his ambitions of seizing power with the help of defecting lawmakers.
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.
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