Despite being preoccupied with his sodomy trial for the whole of next week, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has vowed to make his presence felt in the Sibu by-election to ensure victory for DAP.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution, when contacted, confirmed that Anwar will be in Sibu for about three of the eight days of campaigning.

Due to the sodomy trial, Anwar’s presence will be limited to the weekends.

Saifuddin, who is also Machang MP, said Anwar will be in Sibu this weekend from Saturday night, and then again at the tail-end of the campaign period next Friday night and for the whole of Saturday before polling day on Sunday.

NONE “We have arranged extensive programmes for him, including market visits, ceramah , meet-the-people sessions and walkabouts,” he said.

“Although Anwar will be tied up during weekdays with the trial, he wants to play his role and help the opposition in Sibu.

“Other PKR leaders such as Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and party strategist Tian Chua will also be helping out with the campaign there too.”

Yesterday, Anwar lost his final appeal at the Federal Court to have his sodomy charge - his second in 10 years - struck out on the premise of findings by the three doctors at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital that there was no sign of penetration on the complainant.

Consequently, Anwar's trial will resume on Monday with his defence team led by Karpal Singh expected to grill the complainant, Anwar's former political aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, during cross-examination.

DAP has named its Sarawak chief Wong Ho Leng, who is also Bukit Assek assemblyperson, as its candidate while BN will be represented by Robert Lau Hui Yew from SUPP, a predominantly Chinese party in Sarawak.

It is also learnt there could be several independent candidates with at least one having bought the nomination forms from the Election Commission.

Nine electoral districts

According to Saifuddin, DAP will be heading the the Pakatan Rakyat election machinery for the by-election.

However, the PKR secretary-general said his party had been assigned the special task of focusing on nine of the 44 electoral districts in Sibu.

“These nine electoral districts comprise the urban and semi-urban along with traditional kampung and rural areas.

azlan “We will be mobilising our party workers from Sabah and Sarawak to help with the campaign there as they know the area better. PKR will assist and complement the DAP campaign and we will not be coming out with our own campaign strategy,” he said.

Saifuddin emphasised that PKR will be going all-out to ensure victory for DAP by pulling in the Malay and Iban vote.

He reiterated that PKR's election machinery in Sibu will not be shackled by a dispute with Sarawak DAP over the right to contest two of the three state seats in the Sibu parliamentary constitutency.

Sarawak PKR assistant treasurer George Chen had said that it wanted the right to contest two of the state seats - Bawang Assan and Pelawan - in return for allowing DAP to contest in a straight fight with BN.

Saifuddin said there was no prior discussion on the matter as PKR had been given strict instructions to concentrate on winning the by-election.

“We have not discussed the allocation of state seats. Our focus is to ensure Wong's victory. That is our mission and there shall be no other forms of diversion,” he said.

The Sibu by-election is said to be a prelude to Sarawak's state-wide election which have to be called by next year.

Sarawak is the only state which does hold its state electione in tandem with the general election. The last state election was called in May 2006.

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