Kuala Lumpur:Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today scored a landslide victory in a parliamentary by-election as he trounced his main rival from the ruling coalition, more than a decade after he was forced to give up his seat over sodomy charges.

The Election Commission announced that Anwar, 61,won the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat with a majority of 15,671 votes.

Anwar polled 31,195 votes while his Barisan Nasional opponent Arif Shah Omar Shah got 15,524 in the election. The third candidate, who contested as an independent, lost his deposit, receiving only 92 votes.

The former deputy prime minister last won the Permatang Pauh seat, that has been his stronghold since 1982,in 1995 with a majority of 23,515 votes.

The by-election was held after his wife resigned on July 31 from the seat, which she won in this year s March 8 general election.

The 61-year-old leader s victory strengthens his campaign to topple the Abdullah Badawi government and become the next prime minister even as he is facing a new charge of sodomising a male aide.

Sodomy, even if consensual, is a crime in Malaysia punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

Anwar, who was deputy prime minister from 1993 to 1998, was fired in 1998 and jailed for allegedly sodomising his family driver.

He was later convicted, but that was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2004. Anwar has always maintained that he was framed by the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in a power struggle.
Source : PTI