A former army general is standing for opposition Islamic party PAS in a direct challenge to Defence Minister Najib Razak in forthcoming elections, the party announced.

Retired Brigadier-General Zakaria Dahalan will take on Najib, who is also deputy prime minister, in the Pekan parliamentary constituency in central Pahang state in the March 21 vote, PAS said in a statement late yesterday.

The constituency includes an army base housing up to 5,000 troops.

Zakaria, who retired 10 years ago, is among several high-profile former civil servants who have joined PAS, which rules two of Malaysia's 13 states and wants to turn Malaysia into a theocratic state.

In 1999 polls, Najib beat PAS candidate Ramli Mohamed with a slim majority of 241 votes and his performance this time will be closely watched because he is touted as successor to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Najib garnered 13,148 votes as opposed to Ramli's 12,907.

Sources close to the top party leadership told malaysiakini that voters can expect a colourful election campaign in Pekan as Zakaria is expected to get full support from eight other retired military officials who had recently joined the party.

"They will help him raise the issues on corrupt practices in the armed forces - the ministry Najib was in charged with," he said.

Battle in Perlis

PAS also announced that popular faith healer and religious scholar Harun Din ( left ) would contest the chief minister of Perlis state, Shahidan Kassim, in the Tambun Tulang state seat.

The multiracial National Front coalition, which has ruled Malaysia in one form or another since independence in 1957, is expected to retain power but the spotlight is on the battle for votes of Muslim Malays, who make up some 60 percent of the country's 25 million population.

PAS is aiming to capture at least another state in the northern Malay heartland and analysts said the choice of candidates was an important factor in wooing fence-sitters.