Malaysia: Anwar contests by-election despite being charged

Anwar is expected to comfortably win Permatang Pauh, an electorate in Penang with a 69 percent ethnic Malay population but sizeable numbers of ethnic Chinese and Indian voters. His wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, took the seat in the March election with 30,338 votes, compared to 13,388 for UMNOs candidate. Anwar claims that his return to the parliament will convince enough BN parliamentarians to defect to the opposition and enable it to form a new government on September 16.

If he is convicted of sodomywhich remains a serious crime in MalaysiaAnwar will be expelled from parliament and could face up to 20 years in jail. He was formally charged on August 6 and is campaigning while on bail. He is due to appear in court again on September 10.

New evidence confirms that the charge is a blatant frame-up. The original claim by a former aide of Anwar, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, was that Anwar sodomised him without his consenti.e., that he was raped. After Anwar produced strong alibi evidence, the charge was changed to consensual carnal intercourse against the course of nature, which the prosecution believes will be harder for Anwar to disprove.