Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today said his party was gearing up for two by-elections seen as a further test of the political mood weeks after the opposition snatched a parliamentary seat from the ruling coalition.

anwar respond to perak pkr defection 010209 anwar The seats in Perak were vacated after two legislators from Anwar's PKR party who face trial on corruption charges resigned.

The opposition alliance made huge strides in general election last March, winning five states including Perak and a third of parliamentary seats from the Barisan Nasional coalition which has ruled for half a century.

Since then, the BN led by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has lost two parliamentary constituencies, the most recent last month.

The results, which did not alter the balance of power but showed the government had failed to claw back support after the disastrous general elections, triggered calls for sweeping reforms from within the coalition.

Anwar said he was waiting for the Election Commission to fix the polling date for the new by-elections.

"The state speaker V Sivakumar has declared the two state seats in the northern Perak state as vacant after receiving resignations letters from the two state councillors," Anwar told AFP .

"The opposition is drawing up the election strategy now. We hope to win," he added.

'We have not resigned'

jamaluddin mat radzi and osman jailu perak pkr The two state cabinet ministers who stepped down - Jamaluddin Mat Radzi, 52, and Osman Jailu, 57 - were last year charged with taking bribes and are due to appear for a court hearing on Feb 10.

The resignations have thrown politics in the fragile opposition-held Perak state into disarray.

The opposition alliance led by PKR controls the 59-seat state assembly with a slim majority.

With the two vacant seats, the opposition now holds 30 while the BN National has 27.

However in a later development, both Jamaluddin and Osman denied having stepped down from their seats.

They maintained that they were still the elected representatives for the two constituencies. They also said that they had not defected from PKR.

- AFP