Anwar Ibrahim hits the Campaign Trial
Anwar to hit by-election campaign trail on March 31, 2009
Hafiz Yatim @ www.malaysiakini.com
March 30, 2009
PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim will officially hit the election campaign trail on March 31, picking up where he left off with abortive
rallies in Bukit Selambau a week ago.
He is currently in Bangkok, delivering a keynote lecture entitled ‘Global Economic Crisis and the Future of ASEAN’ at the prestigious Chulalongkorn University.
Anwar was a notable absentee at the nominations process yesterday for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat in Perak, and the state seats of Bukit Selambau (Kedah) and Batang Ai (Sarawak).
His aide, who did not want to be named when contacted said that Anwar’s participation in the Bangkok conference had been arranged before the Election Commission announced the nomination day for the by-elections to be held on April 7.
Anwar was earlier in Manama, Bahrain, for the annual Al-Barakah banking group’s ‘Islamic Banking Conference’ and then stopped in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, for discussions on global economic problems. “He will hit the campaign trail by going to Bukit Selambau tomorrow. He will spend at least two days (of the campaign period) in each of the three constituencies to ensure the opposition’s victory,” said the aide.
Campaign schedule
Anwar is scheduled to be in Batang Ai (on Wednesday) and Bukit Gantang (Thursday), before returning to Bukit Selambau on Friday. He will again cover Batang Ai (Saturday), Bukit Gantang (Sunday) and Bukit Selambau (next Monday).
There is a 15-way battle for Bukit Selambau, which V Arumugam won in the general election last year as an Independent. He then joined
PKR but abruptly vacated the seat and his Kedah exco post. The current candidates are S Ganesan (MIC), S Manikumar (PKR) and 13 Independents.
In Bukit Gantang, Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin from PAS will fight it out with BN’s Ismail Saffian and Independent Kamarul Ramizu Idris. Batang Ai will see a straight fight between Malcolm Mussen Lamoh (PRS) and Jawah Gerang (PKR).
