Keadilan candidate Christina Liew sees "encouraging prospects" for her party in the Gaya parliamentary by-election which will be held in Sabah this Saturday.

The 50-year-old lawyer said this is based on the response of the people. "They are very eager to have an opposition as they are not happy with the Barisan Nasional administration and its policies," she told malaysiakini in a telephone interview.

Liew said the issues in this by-election were "too numerous" to mention but added that mismanagement, privatisation of state land and the exorbitant car parking fees in Kota Kinabalu topped the list.

Come Oct 12, she will face Barisan Nasional's Liew Teck Chan and DAP's Hiew King Cheu. There are 49,500 voters in the constituency, two-third of which are bumiputeras.

Despite the Keadilan leader's optimism, political observers said the real contest will be between BN and its arch-rival DAP