A by-election was held for the Dewan Rakyat parliamentary seat of

Permatang Pauh Permatang Pauh is a town in Central Seberang Perai District, Penang, Malaysia. There are two institutions of higher learning located in Permatang Pauh, namely a campus of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Politeknik Seberang Perai at Bandar P ...

on 26 August 2008 with nomination day on 16 August 2008. The seat of

in the Dewan Rakyat, fell vacant after the resignation of the incumbent,

Datuk Seri The Malay language has a complex system of styles, titles and honorifics which are used extensively in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the southern Philippines. Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and several provinces in Indonesia regul ...

Wan Azizah Wan Ismail Wan Azizah binti Wan Ismail ( Jawi: وان عزيزة بنت وان إسماعيل; born 3 December 1952) is a Malaysian politician who is the spouse of Anwar Ibrahim, the current Prime Minister of Malaysia. She also served as the 12th Depu ...

, on 31 July 2008. Wan Azizah was the Leader of the Opposition as well as the President of the

Parti Keadilan Rakyat The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a Reformism, reformist politics of Malaysia, political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the olde ...

(PKR), a component party of the opposition

Pakatan Rakyat The People's Alliance ( ms, Pakatan Rakyat; abbrev: PR) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DA ...

(PR) coalition. The by-election was contested by the PR candidate former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. This election has been dubbed "the mother of all by-elections" by the media due to the potentially significant implication of the election as well as the high profile of Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar won the election and was sworn into Parliament on 28 August 2008, vowing to topple the government with the help of defectors from

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 ...

Background of the by-election

On 27 July 2008, Anwar said that he aimed to return to parliament for the first time in a decade later that year if a court ordered a by-election near his home town. The seat mentioned would probably be Kulim-Bandar Baharu constituency next to his hometown of

in Penang. Anwar Ibrahim on 31 July 2008 said he would contest a by-election for the parliamentary seat of

vacated by his wife to expedite his return to political office. His wife Wan Azizah said she handed her letter of resignation to the parliament speaker on Thursday 31 July. Party officials said the by-election must be held within 60 days. The Election Commission (EC) had fixed the nomination day for the Permatang Pauh by-election on 16 August, with polling to be held ten days later on 26 August. Some 58,459 voters in the Permatang Pauh constituency would be eligible to vote on 26 August, a working Tuesday, adding that the figure also include 490 postal voters. Anwar Ibrahim was charged on 7 August 2008 for

sodomy Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sod ...

under Section 377B of the Penal Code, fueling speculations over a possible

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

on the part of the Malaysian government to derail his election campaign.

Background of Permatang Pauh

Parliamentary seat P.44

lies in the federal state of Penang. In the 2008 election,

Wan Azizah Wan Ismail of the

(a component party of the

coalition), garnered 30,338 votes, defeating

Firdaus Ismail In Islam, Jannah ( ar, جَنّة, janna, pl. ''jannāt'',lit. "paradise, garden", is the final abode of the righteous. According to one count, the word appears 147 times in the Quran. Belief in the afterlife is one of the six articles of ...

of the

United Malay National Organization The United Malays National Organisation (Malay language, Malay: ; Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party ...

(UMNO) (a component party of the

coalition) (16,950 votes) .

Nominations

Anwar said: "

is clearly overwhelmed. It's no longer a by-election. It's more than that." Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak admitted the ruling party was the underdog: "It is going to be an uphill task but nothing is impossible in politics."

By-election results

Early results indicated a landslide victory for Anwar. Reuters reported "Anwar Ibrahim has won with a majority of 16,210 votes. According to news websit
Malaysiakini
Anwar won 26,646 votes, while the government's Arif Omar won 10,436 votes. Anwar's

People's Justice Party The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a reformist political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party. The ...

spokeswoman Ginie Lim told

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Background of the by-election

Background of Permatang Pauh

Nominations

By-election results

Notes and references