Anwar returns to Malaysian parliament

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today won a landslide victory in a special election, marking a triumphant return to parliament more than a decade after he was thrown out for alleged sex crimes.

The Election Commission announced that Anwar had won 31,195 of the estimated 47,000 votes cast in the election in a semi-rural district in the northern state of Penang that has been his stronghold since 1982.

His rival, Arif Shah Omar Shah of the governing National Front coalition, got 15,524 votes. A third independent candidate got 92 votes.

Anwar’s victory strengthens his campaign to topple the government and become the next prime minister even though he is facing a new charge of sodomising a male aide.