PERMATANG PAUH (Malaysia), Aug 16: Malaysia’s de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, facing charges of sexual abuse, officially kicked off his drive to seize power when he filed papers on Saturday to run for parliament.

Seeking a return to parliament for the first time in a decade, Anwar will run in a by-election on Aug 26 in a traditional opposition stronghold in northern Penang state.

Anwar, the former deputy premier, hopes it will be the first step towards ousting the ruling coalition which has led Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.

Police blanketed the normally sleepy rural enclave of Permatang Pauh in tight security as he lodged his papers to run against the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition’s Arif Shah, a 52-year-old political novice, and another independent candidate.

Political analysts expect Anwar to win the by-election but say his drive to bring down Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s coalition by Sept 16 could run aground as he fights a charge that he had sex with a 23-year-old male aide.

Anwar, 61, who has been imprisoned before on sodomy and corruption charges and who was barred from office until April this year, has denied the charge. “I feel good,” a smiling Anwar told reporters.

“Barisan Nasional is clearly overwhelmed. It’s no longer a by-election. It’s more than that,” he said.

About 15,000 opposition supporters, mainly young ethnic Malay men and women in headscarves and caps, gathered at a nearby football field. They chanted “reformasi” — the battle cry of Anwar’s reform movement — and held aloft banners.

Another 4,000 government supporters bearing posters and flags were on the same field while 3,000 police backed by water cannon stood guard, witnesses said.

International Trade Minister Muhyiddin Yassin described the by-election as “do-or-die” for Anwar. Some local Malaysians appeared unfazed by the allegation Anwar faces.

“Anwar is able to bring reforms and fight corruption and other ills,” said Mohammad Hafiz, a 24-year old factory worker. “On sodomy, let the court decide.”

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak declared Barisan Nasional as the underdog in the by-election. “It is going to be an uphill task but nothing is impossible in politics,” he told reporters after nominations closed.

In a replay of events in 1998, when he was sacked as deputy premier and jailed for sodomy and corruption, Anwar is trying to fend off allegations of homosexual sex as he leads an opposition charge to take power for the first time in Malaysian history.

—Reuters