Malaysia's new PM signals start of election campaign

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 03, 2003

Malaysia's new PM signals start of election campaign

Malaysia's newly-installed Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi signalled at the weekend that elections could be called early as he seeks to win his own mandate from voters.

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Malaysia's newly-installed Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi signalled at the weekend that elections could be called early as he seeks to win his own mandate from voters.

Abdullah took over Friday from Mahathir Mohamad, who retired after 22 years in power, simply because he was the chosen successor and next most senior member of the ruling party -- without having faced a popular vote.

Elections are not due until the end of 2004, but the fact that Abdullah chose to raise the issue in his maiden speech as prime minister Saturday lent credence to speculation that polls will be called within months.

"Let us work harder so that when we face the general election we will get a bigger victory than in the last election," Abdullah told tens of thousands of supporters during a visit to his home state of Penang.

As prime minister, Abdullah leads a powerful coalition of ethnically-based and multiracial parties known as the National Front.

But his own party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), faces a major challenge for the votes of the country's Muslim majority from the hardline Islamic Party (PAS).

In the last elections in 1999, PAS made major inroads into UMNO's power, tripling its parliamentary seats and taking control in a second of the country's 13 states.

With Muslims making up just 60 percent of the population of 24 million, the support of the large ethnic-Chinese and ethnic-Indian minorities is crucial to UMNO retaining its leading role in the governing coalition.

Abdullah acknowledged this in his maiden speech.

"The coalition will hold steadfast to the principles of co-operation among the various races and the power-sharing concept in government," he said.

On November 9, he will open the Malaysian Indian Congress's "Election Machinery Convention", which officials say is expected to draw the biggest gathering in the party's history.

"We want to launch an aggressive campaign in preparation for the general election," said party president Samy Vellu.

The balance of power, though, rests in the hands of the economically-powerful and larger Chinese group, which makes up 27 percent of the population.

PAS's dreams of creating an "Alternative Front" to rival the governing coalition were shattered when the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party pulled out in 2001, citing fears that the hardline Islamists would scrap the country's secular consitution and impose a theocratic state.

Apart from his comments on the election, Abdullah's first two days in office have already shown a change in style from the outspoken and confrontational Mahathir.

The front pages of most newspapers carried photographs of him kneeling to kiss his ageing mother's hand during his visit home, while reports focused on his call for people to "work with me and not for me".

Source: Agencies

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