Permatang Pauh: Malaysian premier Najib Razak and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim yesterday kicked off their rival campaigns for May 5 elections likely to be the country’s closest ever.
The two competitors joined hundreds of parliamentary candidates across the nation in submitting nomination papers in their respective constituencies, marking the start of a two-week campaign that will be hard-fought.
Najib, wearing a traditional black cap, a blue Malay tunic and a sarong, handed in documents in his home area on the east coast, where hundreds of government and opposition supporters gathered.
“I am confident that the team contesting will transform Malaysia to greater heights,” the 59-year-old said on his Twitter feed.
Anwar registered in the northern state of Penang as hundreds of supporters shouted the opposition battle cry “Reformasi!”
“The next two weeks are going to be a tough tumble, especially for the opposition but, God willing, we can manage,” Anwar, also in traditional garb, told reporters.
Anwar leads a diverse three-party alliance that hopes to unseat a coalition controlled by the powerful United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which has dominated Malaysia since independence in 1957.
The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Pact) alliance aims to build on momentum from 2008 elections in which it tripled its seats in parliament, taking a third of a chamber long under the grip of UMNO and its allies.
Under UMNO’s Barisan Nasional coalition, resource-rich Malaysia developed into a prosperous Southeast Asian economy.
But ruling-coalition support has ebbed amid voter impatience with corruption, rising crime and living costs, and Barisan’s use of authoritarian tactics and divisive racial politics.
Most of multi-ethnic Malaysia’s 29 million people are moderate-Muslim ethnic Malays who enjoy political supremacy and economic advantages over sizeable Chinese, Indian, and other minorities.
“(Barisan Nasional) is so corrupt. We want Malaysia to have a good government,” said Zakaria Hashim, a factory worker who waved the flag of Anwar’s party outside the nomination centre in his Permatang Pauh constituency.
A nearby crowd of government supporters wearing Barisan blue chanted “Long Live Barisan!” as security personnel kept watch.
AFP
