BN Has No 'Special' Candidate To Face Anwar In Permatang Pauh, Says Dr Mahathir

BN Has No 'Special' Candidate To Face Anwar In Permatang Pauh, Says Dr Mahathir

KUALA TERENGGANU, Aug 9 (Bernama) -- Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad believes the Barisan Nasional (BN) has no 'special' candidate capabale of facing Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the by-election for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat on Aug 26.

According to the former prime minister, Anwar, who is the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor, would win the by-election as the constituency was his stronghold while the BN had also lost its credibility after having failed to wrest the seat in the past several elections.

"At the moment, I don't see any (candidates), certainly from the BN. Anwar is going to win. (But) what will be interesting is the margin. Whether it is bigger or less (votes) than what he (Anwar) obtained previously," he said when asked on his opinion on the candidate capable of challenging Anwar in the by-election.

Dr Mahathir said this to reporters after delivering his lecture at a forum entitled "The Challenges Facing the Malays: Empowering the Malays" organised by the Terengganu Malay Grassroots Action Front, at the Terengganu Equestrian Resort, here Saturday.

Commenting further, he said if Anwar obtained a bigger majority in the by-election compared to the previous elections, it did not mean that the former deputy prime minister was becoming more popular and getting the people's support.

On the contrary, the former prime minister said the situation showed that the BN, particularly Umno, was increasingly being rejected by the people.

"(However), if the majority obtained by Anwar had declined...Umno can make headway (to regain the people's support)," he said.

When asked about the views of certain quarters that he should stand as an Independent candidate in the by-election, Dr Mahathir said: "No way, I have resigned in 2003 and I have said that I'm not coming back. But I have the right as a citizen to make comments on my country."

He said if an Independent candidate were to contest in the by-election, it would divide the votes of the BN and PKR candidates.

"It depends on who is (the Independent candidate) standing. If he is from a PAS splinter, the possibility is that it will reduce Anwar's votes...if the candidate is a former Umno member, it will give Anwar a bigger majority. But there is no possibility of the Independent candidate winning," he said.

In another development, Dr Mahathir believed Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would remain as Umno president although Gua Musang Umno head Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had offered to contest the Umno presidency in the party elections in December.

"Ku Li (Tengku Razaleigh) should gauge the members' support. I find that only the lower levels are supporting him. (On the other hand) Pak Lah (Abdullah) gets the support of the Umno divisional heads to the extent that they cannot open their mouth at all.

"Those (division heads) who had earlier challenged Datuk Seri Abdullah, are now quiet...I think it's difficult (for Tengku Razaleigh to win). (However) in the party Pak Lah will win, but in the general election, he will lose," he added.

kzso - anwar is 'quite confident' that he'll win in this permatang pauh by-election but it's too early to say actually. is anwar that confident he has the rakyat's support? nope,,it's not. the malays are actually in a dilemma because they do not like anwar that much but they also hated the ydp pm pl too. if anwar is so damn confident, he'll just go for bandar tun razak seat but alas! he goes for a much 'safer' seat. he can just simply instruct khalid to resign like he asked azizah to vacate her seat. if the ydp pm pl resign immediately or earlier that 2010, the malay votes will definately go back to umno. if only pas could put in their candidate ..... it won't be a big surprise if there're lots and lots of protest votes or spoilt votes in this by-e unless umno leadership can convince the malay electrorate in the 10 days campaign.