Malaysian by-elections to test mood ahead of polls

KUALA LUMPUR: Polling opened on Thursday in two Malaysian by-elections seen as a gauge of voter sentiment ahead of national elections that could be held as early as next year.

Strong wins by the ruling National Front coalition would signal a turnaround for the government after its record losses in the 2008 general election, and allow Prime Minister Najib Razak to hold early national polls which aren’t due until 2013.

Najib also needs to score a convincing win in both races to secure a mandate to pursue economic reforms which would put Malaysia back on the map of foreign investors.

“If the National Front wins strongly in both seats then the possibility for snap elections next year is there as it would signal that voters are indeed beginning coming back to them,” said political analyst Shaharuddin Badaruddin.

A thin margin of victory or losses in one or

Malaysia Opposition Make Unity Pledge

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s opposition alliance pledged not to let infighting thwart its ambition of seizing federal power within the next few years.

More than 1,500 opposition officials endorsed a document that spelled out their common goals late Saturday after a daylong convention aimed at patching up rifts that have plagued the three-party alliance since it made unprecedented inroads in March 2008 general elections.

“The three parties made a sincere effort to find common ground, to craft an agenda and policies that will menace the government,” said opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Other opposition figures gave speeches declaring confidence in winning the next general elections, due in 2013. Some political observers speculate that Prime Minister Najib Razak may call snap polls in 2011 if he sees signs of recovering support for his ruling coalition, which lost control of several states to the opposition last year.

The opposition’s gains were attributed to widespread anger over the government’s handling of problems such as graft, racial inequality and public sector inefficiency. However, the barely 2-year-old opposition alliance fears that persistent bickering over how to administer the states it won have eroded its popularity.

The spats stem largely from ideological differences among the three opposition parties: a conservative Islamic group that caters to the Malay Muslim majority; a secular, left-leaning party whose members are mostly from the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities; and Anwar’s multiracial party, considered the bridge between the other two partners.

Disputes have included criticism by ethnic Chinese officials of an Islamic party lawmaker who proposed that the sale of alcohol be severely curtailed in parts of a central state. In another opposition-controlled state, officials battled over plans to demolish a pig slaughterhouse.

The joint policy statement did not provide specific strategies to prevent such problems. It mainly reiterated pledges to scrap a law that allows detention without trial, reform state contract procedures to curb corruption and expand affirmative action policies to include the poor of all races instead of mainly Malays.

Anwar said the document should help dispel claims by Najib’s National Front — which has governed Malaysia since 1957 — that the opposition was a fragile alliance that shared no clear direction. Other opposition leaders played down their spats as troubles that would naturally affect any coalition.

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Malaysia Opposition Make Unity Pledge was first posted on December 20, 2009 at 1:46 pm.