Tuesday 26 August 2008

Permatang Pauh: Anwar confirmed as landslide winner

There doesn't seem to be any official announcement yet but unofficially, Pakatan Rakyat's Anwar Ibrahim is the decisive winner of the by-election. Seems that he has obtained 69 percent of the total votes cast compared to Barisan Nasional's Ariff Shah who got 31 percent. I still don't know who the third candidate was, but his share of the votes was almost zero. So now, Anwar Ibrahim has been returned to Parliament and he is set to become the new Opposition Leader. His trials haven't ended yet but the journey continues....

UPDATE: Seems that the official announcement from the Elections Commission put Anwar with 31,195 votes, Ariff Shah with 15,524 votes and Hanafi with 92. Anwar won with a majority of 15,671 which is even higher than the margin secured by his wife earlier this year.

Now, the questions are these: Will Anwar make a beeline to Parliament House tomorrow to insist that the Speaker swear him in immediately? What if the Speaker refuses to do that? What action can Anwar invoke next? Dear me....the next few days leading to our 51st Merdeka celebrations are fraught with a lot of political uncertainties....

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