Nightmare for Najib soon with KT defeat~malaysiakini

The ‘decisive' victory tasted by PAS in the Kuala Terengganu by-election today spelt trouble for the government as it prepares for a leadership transition, said an expert on Malaysian elections.

Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asian expert at the US-based Johns Hopkins University, who observed the by-election, said PAS' victory would pose tough questions on incoming premier Najib Abdul Razak.

"This is going to call into question Najib's rise to the prime minister's position. There will be those who will question whether he can deliver effectively," she said.

Deputy premier Najib is due this March to replace Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was a casualty of the March 2008 general election that produced the worst results in Umno's history.

Najib personally headed the government's campaign in Kuala Terengganu, as well as another failed by-election last year which saw Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim returned to Parliament after a decade-long absence.

"Of course, this is a setback for us... We will not be disheartened by the result," Najib told a press conference, rejecting the suggestion that the outcome reflected badly on him.

"It's nothing to do with that," he said.

But Welsh said that figures showed the victory had come from a shift in the Malay vote away from the government - highly significant for Umno which has counted on the majority community as its bedrock.

Umno's Malay support diminishing

Meanwhile, the opposition said its performance showed it was a working alliance despite being an unlikely partnership of PAS, Anwar's multiracial PKR, and the predominantly Chinese DAP.

"The two factors that contributed to our success are the combined efforts of all alliance partners and the credibility of the PAS candidate," said Mustapha Ali, head of PAS in Terengganu.

"The support by Malays for Umno is diminishing now," he added.

This was a view shared by PAS vice-president Husam Musa, who said that Umno, which leads the BN coalition and has run Malaysia for half a century, had lost the support of Malay voters as well as the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

"This shows a loss of confidence of majority (Malay) voters towards Umno, and it also represents the national mood which is to reject Umno," he told AFP.

The official tally showed that PAS had won with a majority of 2,631, claiming 32,883 votes against 30,252 for the government which last won the seat in the state capital Kuala Terengganu with a slim majority.

"I thank the voters for giving me their trust. I will do my best," said the victorious PAS candidate, Mohammad Abdul Wahid Endut.

AFP
18/01/09