The White House petition urging the United States to make the release of jailed Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim a top foreign policy priority is back online.

It reemerges on the White House website about 2,000 signatures shy of reaching its goal of 100,000 signatures by the March 12 deadline.

However a counter-petition urging the Obama administration to not interfere in the Malaysian judiciary is missing from the White House website.

The pro-Anwar petition initiated by former United States ambassador to Malaysia John Malott was yanked from the White House website yesterday for “violation of their terms of participants”.

A petition requires 100,000 signatures to warrant a response from the US president.
 
As at 11.50pm Tuesday, the petition garnered 97,793 signatures.

More than 30,000 people signed the petition since yesterday, likely due to heavy campaiging by PKR and DAP.

The petition was launched on Feb 10 - the day Anwar was sentence to five years in jail for sodomy.

“The future of democracy in Malaysia is at stake. Securing Anwar's release from prison must be a top priority in US policy towards Malaysia, to be advanced in every way possible,” says the petition.
 
The second online petition countering Malott's (above) and urging against US inteference stood at about 70,000 signatures on Tuesday morning.
 
It was neck and neck with Malott's a day ago, even overtaking it by a few thousand signatures when the pro-Anwar petition stagnated at 61,000.