Malaysia's next election will be a make-or-break test for opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, once regarded as a future prime minister, but now hemmed in by his opponents and battling to stay relevant to voters.
Anwar will have one hand tied behind his back in fighting the election, because he is barred from running for public office until April, after being convicted in 1999 on charges of abuse of power that led to time in jail.
His Keadilan political party is officially headed by his wife, who is its only member of parliament, and it is struggling to hammer out a common opposition platform with partners ranging from hardline Islamists to race-based parties.
But Anwar was undeterred, saying that although he did not expect the elections to be free and fair, the opposition would still manage to deprive the government of a two-thirds majority, the level of support required to change the constitution.
"Knowing that the elections are fradulent, there is too much cheating, no media access - denying them a two-thirds majority is, God willing, a certainty," Anwar said in a recent interview.
Polls are not due until May 2009, but Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants a fresh five-year mandate to capitalise on a string of state construction projects launched in the last 18 months. The economy is one of his few campaign strengths.
Anwar ignited one of Malaysia's longest-running political quarrels in 1998, by challenging veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad and leading anti-government street protests, before he was jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy that he said were trumped up.
A court quashed the sodomy charges and freed the former deputy prime minister from jail in September 2004, soon after he finished serving the corruption sentence, but the conviction bars him from running for public office until April 2008.
At the time, many Malaysians viewed Anwar's release as a sign that Mahathir's successor, Abdullah, would make good on reform promises that had won his ruling coalition a landslide election victory in March 2004. But progress has been slow.
Instead, voters have had to tighten their belts against rising prices of fuel and food, while campaigns to rein in corruption and slash red tape have lost steam.
