Big win for Malaysia's Abdullah

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in for a new term yesterday after a stunning election victory that routed the Islamist opposition and strengthened his hold over his fractious party.

Mr Abdullah's multi-ethnic Barisan Nasional coalition won one of the biggest election victories in Malaysian history, surprising those who had dismissed the softly spoken scholar as a faceless time-server in the shadow of his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad.

Mr Abdullah took over from the veteran leader only in October, but the extent of his victory gives him a powerful mandate to pursue his own vision of economic development and intensify a crackdown on corruption.

Whereas Mr Mahathir's abrasive style and the jailing and humiliation of his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, drove many Malays into the arms of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), Mr Abdullah's courteous manner and moral standing won them back, leaving PAS on the edge of the political wilderness.

His model of a tolerant and progressive Islam turned out to be a vote winner in the northern Malay heartland that PAS had sought to turn into the main battleground of the election.

Mr Abdullah extended Barisan's grip on the federal parliament to about 90 per cent, easily surpassing the two-thirds majority needed to pass laws and rebuilding support for his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) that dominates Barisan.

He also saw off an attempt by PAS to capture two northern state assemblies and stunned the country by winning back control of Terengganu state, which swung to PAS in 1999.