Permatang Pauh by-election result favoured Anwar, so he gets sworn in today: Pandikar

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be sworn in Member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh today.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia made the announcement before starting yesterday’s session of the Dewan Rakyat.

He said the result for the Permatang Pauh by-election was in favour of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, so he would be sworn in today.

The august house, he said, would be informed of the arrangements for the swearing-in later.

PKR retained Permatang Pauh after Anwar won the seat with a 15,671-vote majority in the by-election yesterday.

Anwar, 61, garnered 31,195 votes while the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah, 51, received 15,524. Hanafi Mamat of Angkatan Keadilan Insan Malaysia (Akim) Hanafi Mamat, 61, lost his deposit after polling only 92 votes.

There were 447 spoilt votes.

The seat was vacated by PKR president Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Isamil on July 31 to enable her husband, Anwar, to contest.

Yesterday, Anwar celebrated his victory which should boost his plan to get to the pinnacle of political power in the country.

The charismatic 61-year-old politician, who led a revitalised opposition to unprecedented gains in last March’s general elections, insists he is on track to form a new government by mid-September with the help of defecting lawmakers.

He won the by-election in his home state of Penang despite an intense campaign mounted by the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled Malaysia for half a century since independence from Britain.

“I share in the joy felt by all Malaysians on this historic day. This is a victory for the people. And it’s great to be back,” said the man who fell from grace in 1998 and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges.

“We will restore the integrity of the judiciary, fight corruption and build a truly unified nation,” he said in a statement.

Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asian expert from Johns Hopkins University, said the result showed Anwar could successfully garner support from across racial lines in multicultural Malaysia, which is dominated by Muslim Malays.

“It’s a decisive victory across races, across economic classes for Anwar Ibrahim. It’s a decisive message calling for change,” she said.

“I think it helps to build momentum,” she said of his ambitions to persuade at least 30 ruling coalition lawmakers to switch sides.

The failure to check Anwar’s ambitions triggered new calls from within the ruling party for the resignation of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose popularity has waned due to rising inflation and rampant corruption.

Senior ruling party member, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who plans to contest for Umno’s top post in December party polls, said Abdullah did not have enough political clout to take the country in the new directions it needed to go in a complex world.

Razaleigh is likely to fail in his challenge as the premier had silenced calls for his immediate ouster by agreeing to hand over power to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak in mid-2010.

Anwar, who is to be sworn in as MP today, will lead Pakatan Rakyat which controls a third of the seats in the lower house.

Despite his triumphant return to parliament, Anwar still has to clear his name of new sodomy allegations, which he says have been concocted by the government.

Sodomy is a serious crime in Malaysia, and carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.

Anwar spent six years in jail on the original sodomy charge, but was freed in 2004 when the conviction was overturned.

— Agencies