It will be a four-cornered fight for the Bukit Bintang parliamentary constituency in Kuala Lumpur, which is a DAP bulwark.

Contesting against the party's incumbent Fong Kui Lun are Barisan Nasional (BN) MCA candidate Tan Chew Mooi, Malaysian Democratic Party (MDP) secretary-general Wee Choo Keong and Independent candidate author Billi Lim Peng Soon.

Election Commission (EC) returning officer V Kanagasivam announced the acceptance of the candidates at 11:35am at the Victoria Institution.

"The EC received nomination from four candidates. There were two objections but after the time for objection ended, no candidate was rejected," he said.

Kanagasivam added that the four will appear on ballot papers in the following order: Wee (MDP), Fong (DAP - photo at right) , Lee (Independent) and Tan (Barisan Nasional).

'Minor' objections

Speaking to reporters later, the returning officer said the protests were "minor" and did not warrant the disqualification of any nominees.

He declined to provide further details, saying EC regulations prohibited officers from giving details of the proceedings.

However, it was learnt that both objections were raised by Tan. One was over the display of posters by both DAP and MDP prior to the official nomination while the second concerned a detail in Fong's forms.

The DAP candidate's witness had dated his signature yesterday instead of today but the EC determined that this did not pose a problem for his candidacy.

Earlier, Tan also suffered a minor hitch to her own nomination when she failed to submit her appointment letter from the BN. Her application was held back temporarily until the letter was produced.

Comeback attempt

Wee, a former DAP MP for this area in 1995 and a lawyer, will be trying his luck for a comeback after his 1995 elections results were controversially overturned by the High Court in the same year.

Wee was barred from contesting in 1999 because of his conviction for contempt of court in 1995. He then formed the breakaway faction MDP just before the 1999 polls after falling out with DAP leaders.

The court handed the seat to MCA's Dr Lee Chong Meng, who held it until losing to Fong in 1999. Lee was again poised to contest this year, but a last minute withdrawal due to family matters saw his protege Tan, an engineer and the sole female candidate, being contested.

As for motivational author Lim, this is his second shot at trying to wrest the seat away from the political parties. In 1999, he garnered 198 votes. Then, Fong obtained 19,115 votes as opposed to Lee's 17,981.

When met, Wee said the fight in Bukit Bintang was mainly between DAP and MCA but added that his appeal to voters should not be discounted since he served the area consistently for the past 14 years.

Claiming that things have changed, he said the days that DAP could win even if it put a piece of wood to stand are over.

"People are no longer voting based on the party symbol but on the person contesting. It is important for the people to do this (in order to vote in) someone who can represent them properly," he said.

Wee started his campaign this morning by marching to the nomination from the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall together with some 150 supporters. His slogan was "I have returned!".

To the surprise of DAP supporters, MDP members gathered alongside them on the closed-off Jalan Stadium leading to the nomination centre, bringing the former party compatriots to a rowdy face off.

Fong, when questioned, declined to speculate on his chances of retaining his seat, saying only that the final decision would be made by voters.

Appeal to women

Meanwhile, Tan (photo at right) appeared to be banking on support from female voters.

"This is the first time that BN has put a woman to contest (in Bukit Bintang). We want to let the people know this. The women should come out and vote," she said.

As a newcomer, the mother of two said she is confident of appealing to all ranks of voters. "We have been working here for years so we are not going to give up."

Tan is believed to have strong chance of winning the seat due to two factors : Wee's entrance into the race and the inclusion of the Razak Mansions polling area into the constituency - an area said to comprise mainly of BN supporters.

The 'mohawk'

Independent candidate Lim (left), however, was unfazed by his lesser prospects, saying that he expects a much higher vote margin compared to his last foray.

"I am very confident, otherwise I would not be here. I may get 12,000 votes to win this time. I have changed my strategy. When competing with giants, I cannot use the same methods as them," said the author who sports a 'mohawk' haircut.

Running on the slogan of 'Make a difference', Lim said the main issues he will be stressing on would be the need to reform the education system to address unemployability of graduates and racial polarisation of students.

"I propose a review of the whole education system. We don't want a system of people totally reliant on getting a job. We want to have people who can create jobs for other people," he said.