Dwindling Malay support for the opposition may affect Keadilan's chances of victory in the Indera Kayangan by-election tomorrow.

While Keadilan campaigners in predominantly Chinese areas such as Pekan Lama and Pekan Baru seem confident of the party's performance on polling day, those in Malay areas such as Seberang Bakau and Padang Katong, say the situation is 'shaky'.

According to Keadilan deputy youth chief Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, party workers have been continuously hindered from reaching out to the Malay grassroots by "gangsters and foster programme youth employed by Umno Youth and Puteri Umno".

"These gangsters are stationed at the entrance of kampung (villages) and residential areas in big numbers to intimidate our campaigners when we go from house to house," Saiffudin, who is Lunas state assembly representative, told malaysiakini .

"The foster children programme started immediately after Hari Raya. These are college and university students who are taken in to stay with local folk and are then later used to campaign for Umno," he said.

Saifuddin said national opposition figures such as party president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, vice-president Azmin Ali and PAS president Fadzil Noor and his deputy Abdul Hadi Awang had to be brought in to make inroads into Malay strongholds.

Since nomination day last Thursday, Keadilan's image has suffered several blows. There were defections of members to Umno including the party's deputy by-election campaign director Mej (Rtd) Mohd Shariff Abd Razak and state Youth deputy chief Syed Araniri Syed Ahmad. They are said to have party-hopped because they were "disillusioned with Keadilan's struggle".

Defections cause rift

It is believed the defections have caused a rift between PAS and Keadilan in Indera Kayangan as PAS finds it difficult to trust the latter and is reluctant to campaign until Saifuddin personally requested them to do so.

Meanwhile, police personnel last night blocked three roads leading to Keadilan's main operations centre in Jalan Seruling where a big crowd was expected to gather to attend a ceramah (political talk) by Azizah and PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

The crowd was diverted to Pengkalan Assam instead, while Nik Aziz , who is also Kelantan Menteri Besar, did not turn up at the ceramah due to flight problems at KLIA where he was stranded until midnight.

Keadilan Negeri Sembilan youth leader Badrul Hisham said police blocked the roads as they believed that the gathering would create a massive traffic jam.

Police also ordered party workers at the operations center to discontinue playing a VCD on jailed deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's trial, he said.

"The police said we were breaking the election laws. When we asked them which section they could not answer," Badrul said.

"When we refused to back down, they told us not to argue with them," he added.

Keadilan's Khoo Yang Chong, a former school teacher will meet MCA's Oui Ah Lan, a retired Chinese school headmistress in a straight fight tomorrow. The nine-day campaign period which started on nomination day last Thursday, will end at midnight tonight.

The seat fell vacant last month following the death of BN state assembly representative Khor Liang Tee who successfully defended the state seat against Keadilan's Ko Chu Liang in the 1999 general elections.