Comfortable win expected for Malaysian govt

Malaysia’s Prime Minister was expected to retain power easily as voting began today in an election that will also decide how strong the fundamentalist Islamic opposition will be in the mostly Muslim country.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s secular coalition was certain to win nationally and in the vast majority of states after ballots for Parliament and 12 state assemblies are counted.

Abdullah became Malaysia’s first new leader in a generation when Mahathir Mohamad retired in October, and is seeking his own mandate at the polls.

Results in a handful of key states will be a sign of whether religious fundamentalism is still gaining ground among the dominant ethnic Muslim Malays, who are about 60% of the Southeast Asian country’s 25 million people.

About 10.3 million registered voters will elect 219 members of the federal Parliament and 505 state assembly members. About 10% of seats have already been decided through uncontested nominations or disqualifications.

Voting was under way at around 7,300 polling centres – in locations ranging from the glittering metropolis of Kuala Lumpur to the jungle-clad Borneo island.

“I voted for the opposition because we must have checks and balances,” said Osman Hassan, a 58-year-old retired army officer living in northern Penang state. “It doesn’t matter who leads the government, but Islam must win.”

In Kepala Batas, Penang, Abdullah was hustled past hundreds of voters queuing to get into voting booths so he could cast his ballot, and predicted afterward that his coalition would improve on its large parliamentary margin.

“Today is the day that the people will decide,” he told reporters. “I am quite confident. I expect a bigger majority, God willing.”

The main contest is between his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party which made strong inroads against UMNO at the previous elections in 1999.

Security was beefed up around Abdullah yesterday after the assassination attempt on Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian the previous day.

More than 50,000 police backed by helicopters, dogs and water cannons have been deployed throughout Malaysia, but no trouble has been reported.

Abdullah has sought support as an anti-corruption fighter determined to end years of Mahathir-era cronyism and inefficiency, and as a promoter of rural development and a moderate, progressive version of Islam.

The opposition claims it’s an election ploy, and that UMNO – which has been the core of every governing coalition since independence from Britain in 1957 - is rotten with greed and is leading Malaysia’s Muslims down an immoral path.