Scandalised Anwar Makes Strong Political Comeback

by Jason Li    August 27, 2008

Anwar Ibrahim, the ex-deputy prime minister of Malaysia turned opposition leader, proves that he's still a political force to be reckoned with when he won the Permatang Pauh by-election.

Despite being charged with sodomy by a former aide, Anwar's victory margin was a convincing 15,671 votes over his Barisan National (BN) rival, Arif Shah Omar Sah.

The seat was vacated by Anwar's wife, Dr Azizah Wan Ismail, to make way for him. She won by 13,398 votes in the March general elections.

"This is a sign that people want change," Anwar declared to an adoring crowd at the counting centre where the results were announced. About 10,000 people had turned up to support him.

His triumph brings him back to parliament for the first time in a decade, and one step closer to realising his campaign of overthrowing the incumbent Abdullah Badawi's government.

He still has to persuade enough Members of Parliament to defect to his opposition co-oalition, the Pakatan Rakyat. 

Although he had previously said he would be able to by mid-September, the odds are against him. He has less than a month to do so.

Also, that looming sodomy charge may be an even bigger obstacle in his road to political success: if convicted, he will lose his parliamentary seat.

The 61-year-old opposition politician was jailed for six years after being convicted for the same charge. The convictions were overthrown in 2004 and he was released.

Sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in jail in Malaysia.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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