Nasharudin has retained the Pas deputy presidency. He collected 480 votes, Husam Musa polled 281 while Mat Sabu won 261.
It looks as if the “progressive” or modernist votes have been split between Husam and Mat Sabu, who together collected 541 votes (54 per cent of votes cast) compared to Nasharudin’s 480 votes.
In comparison, Nizar easily topped the contest for committee positions with 85 per cent of the votes.
Face to face: Mat Sabu (left) with Nasharudin – Photo courtesy of Harakah Daily
Polling for the Pas party elections is now underway as 1,044 delegates cast their ballots. The party elections committee is expected to announce all the official results tomorrow morning.
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The scene outside the Ipoh police station this morning – Photos by Jong
1021: The police have told those arrested that they will have to wait longer to find out their fate.
“They told us that investigations have not yet been completed,” says blogger Zorro, one of those arrested who had gone to the police station in Ipoh. “Why didn’t they tell us that last night?”
In a much-awaited speech in Cairo just now directed largely at the Muslim world, Obama has vowed to:
He has also pledged to work for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate. He has called for the Palestinians to “abandon violence” – without issuing a similar call to the Israelis. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements, he adds – but what about existing settlements?
Just spotted this on the Reuters wire service: Pas Deputy President Nasharudin Mat Isa, who enjoys the backing of conservatives within the party, has ruled out a Pas-Umno/BN pact and instead said that Pas should consolidate within Pakatan and consider itself a “government-in-waiting”.
Mat Sabu is one of the contenders for the Pas deputy presidency – Photo by Anil Netto
Pas holds its 55th general assembly this week.
The party is now at a crossroads. As it aspires for federal leadership together with its Pakatan allies, Pas will have to decide and discern which direction it should take: towards a more inclusive and democratic Malaysia or towards a conservative theology that will alienate it from non-Muslims.
Here’s something I wrote for Asia Times after the Penanti by-election:
Malaysia’s opposition alliance has chalked up its fifth by-election win out of six since a general election last year.
This time, the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front – BN) coalition did not put up a candidate, perhaps fearing that another by-election defeat would be demoralizing. That left the coast clear for the Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) to brush aside three independent candidates on Sunday.
Now comes news that Tenaga is planning two new hydroelectric plants in Terengganu and Pahang (see report below).
Doesn’t this fly against the justification for the laying of submarine cables to transmit electricity from the Bakun Dam in Sarawak to the peninsula – that there would be no need for expensive new capacity on the peninsula?
Energy Minister Peter Chin said last month that the Cabinet had agreed that opting for the Bakun submarine cable project would be better than continuing to build new power plants in the peninsula. “In the long term, it will be more economical and viable to transmit power from Bakun to Peninsular Malaysia even though the undersea cable project will be very costly,” he said.
So, what’s going on? Was Peter Chin unaware of these two new dams in the peninsula – or was he simply having us on?
When I first met her last week, she reminded me of my dear late grandmother. She did not say much but wore a worried frown on her face (see photo).
Tonight, I received news that she had passed away just after 8.00pm on the way to the hospital, after complaining of pain in her back and hand. She had not been feeling well for some time.
Widow Santhosa Mary @ Manimathu, 74, lived among the tenant-villagers at the St Francis Xavier’s Church along Penang Road. They had been given a 31 May deadline to sign an agreement to vacate their homes. The Church, through its lawyers, wanted the villagers to accept RM10,000 in compensation and leave by 31 May 2010. If they failed to accept these terms, they had to leave by yesterday, Pentecost Sunday.
As the deadline to accept the terms approached, Manimathu grew anxious, according to one of the villagers.