BANGKOK: Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia dissolved Parliament on Wednesday, paving the way for what is likely to be a rancorous election campaign amid ethnic tensions, scandals in the country's judiciary and concerns over corruption and rising food prices.
The election commission is due to announce later this week the date for elections, which must be held within 60 days.
There is little risk that the governing National Front coalition led by Abdullah, which has held power without interruption for five decades, will lose. But analysts expect the coalition to win fewer seats than the crushing majority it gained when the last national elections were held in 2004.
Abdullah, whose popularity has fallen sharply in recent months as ethnic tensions have worsened, said Wednesday he hoped for a two-thirds majority. With anything less he might face pressure from his party to step down, analysts say.
The elections will also be a test of the popularity of Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister who is now the government's most vocal critic. Although barred from running for office in this election because of a 1999 conviction for abuse of power in a highly political trial, Anwar has been campaigning vigorously against the government in recent months and his party, Keadilan, is hoping to capitalize on the frustration with Abdullah's administration.
Indians and Chinese, the country's two main minority groups, are angry over a spate of religious disputes and an affirmative action program that favors the Malay majority. Abdullah, a Malay Muslim, is likely to fall back on support from his own ethnic group.
Abdullah's coalition has the advantage of flattering press coverage - the country's main newspapers are effectively controlled by the parties in the coalition - and an electoral system that handicaps the scattered strongholds of the opposition, partly because of gerrymandering. In 2004 the ruling coalition's 64 percent of the popular vote translated into a win of 90 percent of the seats in Parliament.
A survey released last month by the Merdeka Center, an independent polling agency, showed that only 54 percent of Chinese and 44 percent of Indian voters were "satisfied with the way things were going" in the country. This was down from 65 percent and 86 percent respectively a year earlier.
A series of controversies over the demolitions of Hindu and Buddhist temples as well as disputed religious conversions have angered Chinese and Indian voters. But non-ethnic issues have also soured the national mood.
A videotape released last year of a leading lawyer apparently discussing judicial appointments with a top judge in the country has led to a series of stunning revelations pointing to deeply imbedded corruption in the judiciary.
Witnesses speaking at a commission of inquiry into the videotape testified this week that the lawyer, V.K. Lingam, vacationed with a chief justice who was hearing one of his cases and that Lingam wrote parts of a judgment in a libel case in which he was representing one of the parties.
The government has also been tarnished by an ongoing murder trial in which an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak is accused of abetting the slaying of his mistress. The killing was allegedly carried out by two police commandos who also serve as bodyguards to Malaysia's top leaders.
Frustration at the government's policies has spilled onto the streets. In a series of rare demonstrations, lawyers have protested the lack of judicial independence, Indians have called for equal treatment and opposition parties have rallied against what they say are illegal election practices like applying mailed-in ballots to whichever district the government finds to its advantage.
Abdullah's term does not expire until May 2009, but among the possible reasons for early elections is the urgency of cutting fuel subsidies, a politically damaging move the governing coalition would prefer to take after elections. The subsidies cost the government three times what the government spends on education and health care.
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