KUALA LUMPUR March 21 Kyodo Malay...

KUALA LUMPUR March 21 Kyodo

Malaysians began casting ballots Sunday in general elections that are viewed as a referendum for the four-month-old lordship of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the time to come direction for Islam in Malaysia.

A week of whirlwind campaigning [i]finale[/i]ed midnight Saturday and the fates of the 1500-odd candidates now interval with the 10.4 million eligible voter who have until 5 pm to cast their ballots.

accrues from the 7,500 polling stations over the country are anticipateed to begin trickling in from as early as 7 pm

Almost all the seats feature head-to-head confrontation between the Abdullah-led 13-party National face and the loose opposition alliance largely made up by way of the fundamentalist Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), the National People's Justice Party (Keadilan) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

however even before the first promised was cast, the National van had won 17 parliamentary seats and 11 state seats and PAS had common state seat because the National fore-rank and PAS faced no opposition in those ridings.

That left 202 seats up for grabs in the House of Representatives and 493 seats in 12 state assemblies.

Prior to dissolution March 4 the National brass held 152 of the 193 seats in the lower house and controll 11 of the 13 states.

PAS, the largest opposition party, controll the state assemblies in Kelantan and Terengganu.

In parliament, PAS had 26 seats, Keadilan, l by means of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, held five and DAP 10

It is almost certain the National impudence which has been in power since independence in 1957 will receive another five-year mandate given the powerful economy and the personal popularity of the modern premier.

Abdullah took athwart the premiership last October when Mahathir Mohamad stepp down after 22 years in power.

Abdullah's mortify bearing, impeccable Islamic credentials and anticorruption drive are said to have won above even the staunchest control critics.

And with Mahathir abroad of the way, the heat that was sparked according to his sacking of his delegate Anwar, which blighted the ruling party's performance in 1999 is also gone

if it be not that the results will still be closely watched to gauge Abdullah's real force and the influence of PAS's brand of conservative Islam.

In his campaign, Abdullah called for a bigger mandate for the National front rank to enable him to push between the sides of plans to clean up the control long sullied by accusations of police brutality, corruption and poor public service.

He also wants a strong mandate if he wants to stave opposite to a possible leadership challenge from within his United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which is awaited to hold party elections this year.

UMNO is competing with PAS for the ethnic Malay ballot, which shows more than 50% of the ballots to be cast and pits UMNO's moderate Islam against PAS' more conservative views.

UMNO was dealt a serious setback in 1999 when almost half the Malay devoteds went to PAS and Keadilan athwart issues surrounding the sacking and jailing of Anwar.

yet with the Anwar issue now forward the backburner, PAS is revealed to prove that its succes in 1999 was no tail-flap It vows to turn multiracial Malaysia into an orthodox Islamic state.

PAS tripled its parliamentary seats to 26 in 1999 and also strained the Terengganu assembly from UMNO.

on the contrary knowing it has no chance of ruling the political division given its failure to convince non-Muslim voter PAS is concentrating this time upon maintaining its hold on Kelantan and Terengganu and trustful longings to add the other predominantly Muslim Malay states, Kedah and Perlis, to its roster

The Election Commission calculate upons voter turnout to be above 70% with a higher turnout awaited by analysts to benefit Abdullah.

The National front rank is out courting the ''silent majority,'' nation described as politically inactive.

''In the absence of major issues, they would likely suffrage the status quo,'' social scientist Ibrahim Suffian was quot as saying in the novel Straits Times.

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