PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim says the party is gaining ground in its battle to wrest the Batu Sapi seat from Barisan Nasional.

“I would say we are between 38 and 40 percent in gaining ground to win.

NONE “This is a slow process (to gain trust of the voters). I am catching a plane there now to help in the campaign,” he told reporters outside the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today.

Anwar ( right ) is scheduled to speak at several ceramah within the Batu Sapi parliamentary constituency, for which PKR is involved in a three-way contest.

It has put up Ansari Abdullah as its candidate, while BN has picked Linda Tsen of PBS, the widow of the former seat holder, Edmund Chong.

SAPP president Yong Teck Lee, who has been without a state or parliamentary seat since a 1999 election offence, is the third candidate in the battle that is to be decided on Nov 4.

Mega projects for Umno cronies

Anwar, who was also asked about the announcement of mega projects by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in the 2011 Budget, said they were for the benefit of Umno cronies.

“The questionable mega-projects, no matter what the PNB (Permodalan Nasional Bhd) claims, are for the benefit of Umno cronies and not the people,” he said

He admitted, when asked, that he had a limited role in setting up Realmild Sdn Bhd, which holds a controlling stake in Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB), when he served as deputy prime minister and finance minister.

“However, the testimonies in court show that the shares are owned by Umno, not by me. Some even said that 70 percent of it is owned by Dr Mahathir Mohamad. This lends credence to Umno's involvment in major projects, which are to support its cronies.

'Realmild court case has absolved me'

“What we are having now, as tabled in the budget, are more mega projects and I suspect they are also for the benefit of Umno cronies, as was done in the past,” Anwar added.

The opposition leader was asked about his role in setting-up Realmild during his tenure as finance minister, since it had been alleged that he played a major role in it. Some Umno politicians have even claimed that Anwar had a controlling stake in MRCB.

Anwar had said before that after the suit was filed by former Realmild director Khalid Ahmad against another former director Abdul Rahman Maidin, the court action had absolved him of  having any interest in MRCB.

The Realmild case concluded in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today and the decision has been fixed for Dec 10.