UMNO celebrates by-election victory
UMNO celebrates by-election victory
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Leaders of Malaysia's ruling party on Sunday celebrated their victory in a closely watched by-election, trumpeting the win as a rebuke of opposition claims that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was losing the people's support.
In what was widely seen as a test of Mahathir's popularity among Muslim Malays, 11,639 voters in the rural district of Sanggang in eastern Pahang state cast ballots Saturday to choose a new state assemblyman.
Redzwan Harun, candidate for Mahathir's United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, polled a majority of 1,963 votes, retaining the seat won by the party in last November's general election.
Redzwan, a former mosque official, defeated Hishamuddin Yahya, who spearheaded a challenge by the fundamentalist opposition Pan- Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS.
Mahathir said on Sunday his coalition won a closely-fought by- election partly because people were no longer agitated about the treatment of Anwar Ibrahim.
"We found that the opposition resorted to very dirty tactics and tried to instil fear so that people especially the Chinese would not go out to vote."
The sacking and jailing of Mathathir's former deputy Anwar split the ethnic Malay vote. UMNO lost significant ground in last November's parliamentary and state elections to PAS.
Mahathir, quoted by the official Bernama news agency after launching the Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix, said Malays' confidence in UMNO would be fully restored when the government had the chance to explain what happened with Anwar.
"There is no conspiracy, there is no victimization ... only that we want to save the country from people we feel are not suitable," he said.
Anwar was jailed in April 1999 for six years for abusing his official powers to cover up claims of sexual misconduct. He is now on trial for sodomy and could face another 20 years if convicted.
The former heir apparent to Mahathir says he was framed by high-level politicians because he threatened to expose government corruption and was seen as a political threat to the premier.
Anwar is trying to call Mahathir as a trial witness but the judge has yet to rule on this.
Both sides had placed extraordinary importance on winning Sanggang.
The result will boost the standing within UMNO of Deputy Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who had campaigned intensively. Mahathir says this is his last term in office and has indicated Abdullah as his likeliest successor. UMNO holds leadership elections in May but Mahathir and Abdullah are not being challenged for the top two posts.
"It's a moral boost in terms of Abdullah's ability to deliver the goods," said Abdul Razak Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center.