Permatang Pauh : BN Hits With Tricks and Tales

Source : Malaysiakini

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today accused the government of using "dirty tricks" to disrupt his campaign to return to parliament in a by-election.

MCPX

Anwar said the government had ordered its supporters to heckle him over allegations he sodomised a young male aide, which he has dismissed as a plot to derail his ambitions of seizing power.

And he said the ruling coalition was playing on tensions between the majority Malays and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians, by sending SMS text messages to Malay villagers slamming Anwar as an "agent of the Chinese".

"These are dirty tactics. It is a malicious campaign on their part and is completely immoral," he told a press conference.

And he said the government had ordered its supporters to heckle their opposition opponents by yelling "sodomy, sodomy" at political events.

"Look at our campaign slogan, it is "Reform" and "Independence". But their leaders, led by (Deputy Premier) Najib Razak, asked them to shout 'sodomy' to our camp of supporters," he said.

The Aug 26 by-election is being seen as a test of Anwar's popularity after Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a 23-year-old former aide, accused him of sodomy - the same charge that saw him jailed a decade ago.