PKR's candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election Zaid Ibrahim is first out of the blocks and making good headway with the voters.

While rumours abound in the BN camp that they are nowhere near to reaching a consensus on even who to field, it is understood that Zaid had started preparations even before his candidacy was announced yesterday night.

NONE His fliers, printed in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese ( right ) and Tamil, have been making its rounds among the voters last night itself.

Taking into consideration that he may not have the local advantage, the PKR team distributed the leaflets to "introduce" Zaid when Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim announced his name in the ceramah in Serendah.

The fliers highlighted his accomplishments as law minister including attempting to bring in judicial reforms as well as apologising to former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas over the government's role in the 1988 judicial crisis.

His philanthropic achievements including the setting of his Kelantan Foundation for the Disabled as well as being listed as one of Asia's most famous philanthropists by Forbes magazine, were highlighted.

They also explained that he left his cushy ministerial position as de facto law minister in protest of the arrest of journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, Selangor exco Teresa Kok and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin under the Internal Security Act in 2008.

"Although he is wealthy in his own right, he is not corrupt like an Umno politician," said the flier.

A true businessman, Zaid also took the opportunity to hawk his biography I, Too, Am Malay to willing buyers.

NONE Considered a novice politician who only joined Umno back in 2000, and winning the Kota Baru seat in the 2004 general elections, Zaid is now thrown into the deep end of politics after his name was jubilantly announced by Anwar.

The former corporate figure is already taking opportunity of his headstart by scheduling as many as two ceramah tonight itself.

The party organ Suara Keadilan also acted as harbinger of his candidacy with a full feature-length interview with him on Friday.

The paper traditionally goes to print on Monday morning but the editors decided to postpone it to carry the announcement reports as well as the interview.

But on the other side of the fence, BN runs the risk of alienating some of the grassroot party members by choosing either MIC deputy president G Palanivel, or the deputy youth chief V Mugilan.

Despite BN deputy chief Muhyiddin Yassin stressing that there is no rift , some MIC grassroot members have taken umbrage to their Umno counterparts' preference to the younger Mugilan.

Zaid's candidacy was also no cakewalk for the party which had earlier received up to 15 names for the seat.

But party insiders have stressed that they would rather a national-level leader who can be a strong voice in Parliament, as compared to a local hero.

NONE Despite the skyrocketing confidence levels of Pakatan party workers at the expense of the Barisan's state of turmoil, Zaid ( left ) is still not treating the by-election as a walkover.

He will have to face the challenge from inside the party itself, starting with being able to work hand-in-hand with vice-president Azmin Ali, whom he has had fiery spats with in the past.

In fact, Azmin's absence from the announcement yesterday has sparked rumours that he opted out in protest of Zaid's candidacy, although other party spokespeople have stressed that he was away in Sibu.

While Azmin has yet to publicly voice his support for Zaid, it is also likely that Zaid will be unperturbed by the episode.

However, while Zaid has got a head start, he still has the arduous task of convincing voters, traditionally been more concerned with bread-and-butter issues, that he is the right choice.