Malaysia's ruling coalition sought to push the nation's Islamic party further into the political wilderness on Sunday with the start of its campaign for a crucial state by-election.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Barisan Nasional coalition is contesting the December 6 poll in north-eastern Kelantan state, the last stronghold of Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), which rules the state legislature with a two-seat majority.
The poll in the rural state seat of Pengkalan Pasir is the first since Abdullah won a thumping general election victory in early 2004 on a pledge to clean up corruption and cronyism.
It is also a major test for PAS, which wants Malaysia to become an Islamic state based on the Koran but has been weakened by its poor showing in the general election. In that poll, it lost Terengganu state and narrowly clung onto Kelantan.
"If the voters of Pengkalan Pasir want to start a big change in Kelantan, this is the time and opportunity to choose Barisan," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, leading the campaign, told reporters at the start of the Barisan campaign.
A defeat in Pengkalan Pasir would leave the PAS state government, led by cleric Nik Aziz Nik Mat, with a one-seat majority and pressure it to call for a snap state election.
Barisan officials say the coalition hopes to recapture Kelantan by the next general election due in 2008. Kelantan is one of Malaysia's economically backward states, sits next to the Thai border and has been ruled by PAS since 1990.
PAS is banking on former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and the party's new set of younger leaders to regain support after its major setbacks in 2004 polls. "It's a referendum on PAS. It's a test to see how far they have come, whether the people have accepted their new image," said Terence Chong, a fellow at Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore.
PAS Vice-president Husam Musa said Barisan's election promises, including an offer to build a public university in Kelantan, was unlikely to sway voters, many of them farmers.