Umno is preparing for a possible re-election in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency, which is held by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is the sole representative for the opposition party.

The party had filed an election petition alleging discrepancies in the results soon after the March 21 general elections.

Wan Azizah, the wife of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, won the seat after two recounts with a slim majority of 590 votes. The seat was held by Anwar prior to his sacking in 1998 and his subsequent jailing on charges of sodomy and corruption.

Although the election petition is still pending, Permatang Pauh Umno division pro-tem vice-chairperson Arif Shah Omar Shah said they do not want to be caught unprepared.

"We are tuning ourselves towards this and building confidence among our members," he added when contacted yesterday.

The petition was filed by Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Pirdaus Ismail. The former national mosque imam named Wan Azizah, the Election Commission and its returning officer as respondents.

Pirdaus' complaints included that the returning officer failed to declare the results of the first count on March 21, three of his counting agents being denied entry to the Seri Penanti school polling centre and five ballot boxes found unsealed during the recount.

He asked the court to order a recount or declare him as the winner for the election. The petitioner also asked the court to make any other order deemed necessary, which could include a re-election.

The case was heard in the Penang High Court last week and the hearing will resume on July 14-16. However, Pirdaus could not be reached for comment.

Factional splits

Elaborating on the preparations, Arif Shah ( photo ), who is also the state assemblyperson for Seberang Jaya, said he held meetings with the police, village security, management committees and non-governmental organisations.

He said the 'hidden agenda' behind the meetings was to allude to them on the possibility of a re-election.

On the same note, he said factional splits within the Umno division could hurt the party's chances should a re-election be called.

To ensure victory, he urged members to 'increase solidarity and close ranks'.

In a related development, the Umno supreme council last week decided to postpone the Permatang Pauh divisional elections, slated for July 18.

It is believed that the decision was made to avoid further splits in the division as this could hamper Umno's chances in a re-election.

According to sources, the division's pro-tem chairperson Abdul Jalil Abdul Majid does not see eye to eye with certain division leaders including Arif Shah.

Abdul Jalil received 31 nominations for the chairperson's post out of the 49 branches which had convened their annual general meetings. Thirty-six other branches have yet to convene their meetings.

Former chairperson Ahmad Saad received 18 nominations. He is known as a staunch supporter of Anwar and was among five Umno division leaders dropped by the supreme council last year.

Pirdaus and Arif, who are both vying for the division's deputy chief post, received 17 and 32 nominations respectively.

Strong case

Contacted later, Abdul Jalil, who is also the Penanti state assemblyperson, dismissed the issue of preparing for the re-election as 'premature'.

"We have not even set up a committee (to prepare for the re-election), the only instruction that I received was to suspend the division elections indefinitely," he said.

However, he declined to comment on whether the postponement of the divisional election was related to the possibility of a re-election, beyond saying that the matter will be decided by the court.

He also refuted a suggestion that his announcement on Monday to implement 26 road maintenance projects within the constituency was connected to the re-election.

"These are annual projects, don't confuse them with something else," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Wan Azizah remained optimistic about the issue.

"I have a strong case because I won in both counts and there were no discrepancies. The case is still pending in court, it can go either way, so if we were to talk about a re-election now, it would involve a question of the independence of the court," she said.

It is learnt that during the negotiations for the Umno-PAS ' gentlemen pact ' to forego their respective election petitions in Terengganu and Kelantan, there were moves to include Permatang Pauh but this was rejected by Umno.

Keadilan, which won five parliamentary seats its first electoral foray in the 1999 polls, suffered a stunning setback in this year's elections by retaining only one seat.