National Front enjoys early success in polls
National Front enjoys early success in polls
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's National Front coalition had taken an early lead ahead of Malaysian polls in nine days, but is in for a tough battle to retain the northern state of Penang, officials said yesterday.
The National Front scored an early victory by winning unopposed 11 seats of the total of 192 seats in parliament, and was uncontested in nine of 394 seats in 11 state legislatures at the close of nomination day on Saturday.
But analysts said Mahathir's coalition was in for a bruising fight for Penang state, where the state's chief minister, Koh Tsu Koon, is being challenged by opposition leader Lim Kit Siang.
Lim, secretary-general of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), is battling to win control of Penang, Malaysia's only ethnic-Chinese dominated state and former DAP power base.
In the upcoming general elections, the National Front has to win a minimum of 117 more seats to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament.
Polling for the remaining 181 seats in the national parliament and 385 state seats in 11 state legislatures is set for April 25 in peninsular Malaysia and April 24 and 25 in the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak.
Mahathir, 70, is locked in a straight fight with a 57-year-old former police officer, Ahmad Mohd Alim of the fundamentalist opposition Parti Islam (PAS) in Kubang Pasu, in the prime minister's home state of Kedah.
"I think there is a good chance for us to win, considering we've won quite a number of seats uncontested," Mahathir was reported saying on television after filing his nomination papers in Kedah on Saturday.
His deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, is headed for a three-way fight with candidates from the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) and PAS in Permatang Pauh in northern Penang state.
Analysts said both Mahathir and Anwar should win their seats "hands down" as their challengers were virtual unknowns.
In the 1990 polls, the National Front only won two parliamentary seats uncontested, one each in Sabah and Sarawak.
Mahathir, underlining his concern about Penang, warned voters they would be committing a "grave mistake" if they voted for the DAP.
"It will be a grave mistake for the Penang people to support (Lim) Kit Siang because they have nothing at all to gain," he said.
The National Front rules all but one of Malaysia's 13 states, with the northeastern state of Kelantan being controlled by the PAS, which is expected to retain control of the state.
A total of 417 candidates are vying for parliamentary seats and 857 for state seats, among them a large number of journalists contesting under the National Front banner.
Some nine million people out of the population of 19 million are eligible to vote.