Anwar acquittal shifts focus to polls

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Races in Malaysia's next elections could get tighter with the acquittal of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges, analysts said.

The court ruling Monday ended the two-year long case against the 64-year-old former deputy prime minister and reformer. A conviction could have sent him to prison for as long as 20 years, ending his political career -- and likely the opposition's best chance of toppling the country's governing coalition of Prime Minister Najib Razak -- The New York Times reported.

Anwar had maintained the charges against him were designed to finish off his political life. He led the opposition to big victories in 2008.

The acquittal would allow him to contest in the elections, which must be held by the middle of 2013, the Times said. The acquittal also allowed the government, which has denied Anwar's accusations, to claim the independence of the judiciary in the Muslim-majority multiracial country.

Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Center, an independent polling company, told the Times Anwar's acquittal means the next election would be based on policy ideas relating to governing and the country's development.

He said the court decision also could benefit the government by allowing Prime Minister Najib to "burnish his credentials as a reformer" and give credence to his New Year's message that he wants Malaysia to be a more democratic country.

Ooi Kee Beng at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies said the ruling would provide a "morale boost" for Anwar.

A CNN report quoted Anwar as saying he is ready to start campaigning again to challenge the ruling coalition's 50-year hold on power.

Anwar's group of opposition parties include a conservative ethnic Malay Islamic party, a secular party largely representing ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities and his own multiracial party, the report said.

The reform movement has called for a multiracial alternative to the political status quo in the country including the controversial policy of bumiputra or "son of the soil," which favors the ethnic Malay majority for employment, business, education and housing.