Updated 2.35pm on 3 June 2009 PENANG, 3 June 2009: Newly-elected Penanti state assemblyperson Mansor Othman was sworn in today as Penang deputy chief minister I before the Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas at his Seri Mutiara official residence. Mansor, 59, was handed his letter of appointment and proceeded to take the oath [...]

The road ahead is long and winding – but who will lead the way? (Background image by Monica Arellano-Ongpin @ Flickr; stop sign images by Mateusz Stachowski /sxc.hu; Najib image public domain, source: Wikimedia commons) SO another by-election is over — the sixth since 2008. Garnering 85% of the total votes cast, Parti Keadilan Rakyat [...]

“They said if I win the contest, I could rejoin the party and I would be given the Deputy Chief Minister 1 post.” INDEPENDENT candidate Aminah Abdullah, on part of the alleged bribe offered to her on 13 May 2009 by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) supreme council member Cheah Kah Peng and Lim Eng Nam, [...]

ON paper, the 5,558-vote winning majority of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s Dr Mansor Othman during the recently concluded Penanti by-election looks stunning. Indeed, it is more than a two-fold increase of the 2,219-vote majority polled by Mansor’s predecessor, Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin, during the March 2008 general election. In fact, at 6,052 votes, Mansor polled 85% [...]

JEJU ISLAND (South Korea), 1 June 2009: Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s victory in the Penanti by-election yesterday is not a yardstick to gauge the popularity of any political party. The prime minister said PKR’s victory was also not an impressive win because voter turnout dropped to less than 50%, and [...]

PETALING JAYA: 1 June 2009: Increased police presence during the by-elections since the March 2008 general election is both unnecessary and wasteful, the National Institute for Electoral Integrity (NIEI) said. NIEI executive director Amin Iskandar said the trend of deploying large numbers of police officers to a by-election only appeared to begin after the general [...]