PAS to field women at next election

PAS to field women at next election

MALAYSIA: For the first time in decades Malaysia's Islamic opposition will field female candidates at the next general election, party officials said on Tuesday.

Parti se-Malaysia (PAS) is set to pose the biggest challenge to the ruling United Malays National Organization at elections expected later this year or early in 2004.

The present UMNO leader, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who leaves office in October, actively courted the women's vote. PAS is belatedly playing catch-up.

"Better late than never," Dr. Mariah Mahmud, a PAS central committee member, said.

Mahmud said PAS, founded in 1951, had never made it an official party policy to bar women from contesting the elections but the party has had only a handful of female parliamentarians over the years. --Reuters