Malaysian prime minister calls General Election

Malaysia’s new prime minister today called early national elections that will pit his secular government against a fundamentalist Islamic opposition.

No date was immediately set, but polls are expected in the next two or three weeks.

The polls will be Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s first electoral test since taking over in October, when former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad retired after 22 years in power.

They are seen as make-or-break for Abdullah, and will signal whether Islamic fundamentalism is moving into the political mainstream in a multi-ethnic but Muslim-dominated country of 25 million people.

Abdullah has sought to distance himself from the Mahathir era, launching a popular crackdown on corruption in government and industry. He also shelved some big projects linked to a Mahathir-linked tycoon and promised a more open and accountable government.

But his image has been dented by allegations from opposition groups that a police investigation into the trafficking of nuclear parts to Libya was whitewashed to protect his son, who controls the company involved.

Abdullah said in a statement that King Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail had signed a decree dissolving Parliament, effective tomorrow.

The Election Commission will meet in four days to fix the dates for nominating candidates and holding the polls, Chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman told a news conference.

Voters will select 219 members of a new federal Parliament and 505 representatives of legislatures in 12 of Malaysia’s 13 states.

The government’s five-year term is not due to expire until November, but a snap election has been widely expected since Abdullah took power.

His United Malays National Organisation leads a 14-party ruling coalition that holds 152 of the 193 seats in the current Parliament and has almost no chance of losing power.