Anwar Says Lawmakers Can Topple Malaysia's Abdullah

Anwar Says Lawmakers Can Topple Malaysia's Abdullah (Update1)

By Angus Whitley and Manirajan Ramasamy

May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said a confidence vote against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is ``the best option'' to topple the ruling party.

``You use constitutional means to prove that you have the majority support of the house to move a motion to defeat the prime minister,'' Anwar told reporters in Singapore today.

Abdullah faces mounting pressure to quit after leading the government to its worst-ever election result in March and former premier Mahathir Mohathir's May 19 resignation from the United Malays National Organisation. Anwar, whose alliance of three parties needs 30 more seats in Parliament for a majority, has been wooing lawmakers from the ruling coalition.

``The political risk in Malaysia has ratcheted up,'' said Raymond Tang, who oversees $5.4 billion as chief investment officer at CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur.

Mahathir, 82, who sacked and jailed Anwar, 60, ten years ago, has encouraged other UMNO members to quit, while telling them not to switch to Anwar's alliance.

``Mahathir's a very astute politician. I don't think this is going to end quite so soon,'' said Fui K. Soong, director at the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research.

Abdullah, 68, said after Mahathir's resignation that he still had the support of UMNO and wouldn't quit. He had earlier said he would begin planning a transition to his deputy Najib Razak after party elections in December.

Special Meeting

He has called a special meeting of UMNO's supreme council tonight at 8 p.m.

Anwar's People's Alliance of his People's Justice Party, the Democratic Action Party, and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, has promised to end a government program that gives special rights to the ethnic Malay majority. They won five of 13 states on March 8 and denied the government its usual two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Anwar said today he hasn't yet received official confirmation that he is eligible to run for public office after serving time in jail on corruption charges that he denies. Some opposition lawmakers are prepared to step down and let Anwar contest a seat in a by-election, he has said.

Anwar, who claims he already has the parliamentary support necessary to become prime minister, also said he wouldn't serve more than a decade in the job.

``If you can't effect any meaningful change in 10 years in office it's time to go,'' he said.