VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Anwar Ibrahim has ramped up campaigning this week to be Malaysia's prime minister, buoyed by polls putting the veteran opposition leader ahead in a closely fought contest.

Saturday's general election looks to be the Southeast Asian nation's tightest since independence in 1957, with opinion polls predicting a hung parliament as no party or coalition is expected to get the simple majority needed to form a government.

The coalition led by Anwar - who in 25 years has gone from the heir apparent of Malaysia's longest-serving leader to a prisoner convicted of sodomy to the country's leading opposition figure - is expected to win the most seats but fall short of a majority, polls and analysts say.

Rival alliances, including those run by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and former premier Muhyiddin Yassin, could come together to clinch the required numbers and deny Anwar the top job.

The top issues for voters are the economic outlook, with growth expected to slow, and rising inflation. Many Malaysians are also frustrated with recent political instability that they think has taken politicians' focus away off economic development.

Anwar's Pakatan Harapan coalition is forecast to secure the largest share of votes at 33.6%, according to a survey released on Friday by independent pollster Merdeka Center. The Perikatan alliance led by Muhyiddin was polling at 20.3% and Ismail's Barisan Nasional 15.4%.

Pakatan Harapan coalition was on track to win the most seats at 82 of the 222 total, Merdeka said, while 45 seats were too close to call, based on the survey conducted Wednesday through Friday. Anwar was the most popular candidate for prime minister at 33%.

"The competition in many seats will be very close among the competing parties," Merdeka said.

Ismail's and Muhyiddin's alliances are part of the ruling coalition but contesting the election separately.

Anwar, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, has appeared at big rallies vowing to create political stability, heal divisions between the Muslim-majority Malays and other ethnic groups and restore the economy by bringing in jobs and investment.

"This election is not about changing the prime minister," Anwar said in an address on Thursday. "This election is the best chance to save the country and make sweeping changes to restore our beloved nation."

'TOO CLOSE TO CALL'

Anwar heads a multiethnic coalition, while Barisan and Perikatan are led by parties that prioritise the interests of Malays. Race and religion are divisive issues in multi-racial Malaysia, where ethnic Chinese and Indians make up about 30% of the electorate.

Merdeka said its surveys through the campaign have shown a "discernible movement" of Malay voters to Perikatan and to a lesser extent, Pakatan, at the expense of Barisan.

Anwar's alliance could lose if other blocs team up against it, analysts say, with smaller political coalitions based in Borneo island's Sabah and Sarawak states potentially playing kingmaker.

In an interview with Reuters this month, Anwar ruled out working with Ismail and Muhyiddin's coalitions, citing "fundamental differences" over race and religion.

In the event of a hung parliament, Anwar's Pakatan could have an advantage in attracting allies, as divisions and infighting made the other two major coalitions "inherently unstable", said Bridget Welsh of the University of Nottingham Malaysia.

But she said many seats remained too close to call, as 15% to 30% of the electorate are undecided.

Anwar's more than two decades as an opposition figure have included nine years in jail for sodomy and corruption, charges he says were politically motivated.

He was released from prison in 2018 after joining hands with former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, both his mentor and long-time rival, to defeat Barisan for the first time in Malaysia's history amid public anger at the government over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal.

Mahathir became prime minister for a second time in 2018 at age 92, promising to hand over power to Anwar within two years, but the coalition collapsed in 22 months due to infighting over the transition.

Muhyiddin briefly became premier, but his administration collapsed last year, paving the way for Barisan's return to power with Ismail Sabri at the helm. (Reuters)

Leaders of the 21-member APEC bloc pledged on Saturday to boost trade and do more to tackle other economic challenges, wrapping up the last of three summits in the region in a week that have been overshadowed by intense geopolitical rivalry.

The summits have been attended by global leaders, and the talks have often been disrupted by friction spilling over from the war in Ukraine as well as flashpoints such as the Taiwan strait and the Korean peninsula.

A Southeast Asian summit that included China, Japan and the United States was held in Cambodia, while the Group of 20 (G20) major economies met on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The APEC meeting was interrupted on Friday when Vice President Kamala Harris, who is heading the U.S. delegation, called an emergency gathering of allies on the sidelines to condemn North Korea after it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.

On Saturday, Thai Prime Minister and APEC chair Prayuth Chan-ocha sought to bring the focus back to economic issues and said APEC made "significant progress" by agreeing a multi-year work plan for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

An APEC leaders' declaration said the group would uphold and further strengthen a rules-based multilateral trading system, but also recognised more intensive efforts were needed to address challenges like rising inflation, food security, climate change and natural disasters.

"This year, we have also witnessed the war in Ukraine further adversely impact the global economy," said the declaration, which said most members strongly condemned the war.

At the G20 meeting in Indonesia, members unanimously adopted a declaration that said most members condemned the Ukraine war but also acknowledged some countries saw the conflict differently.

The APEC leaders echoed the G20 declaration as they referred to U.N. resolutions that deplore Russia's aggression and demand its complete and unconditional withdrawal from Ukraine, but also noted a variety of opinions.

"There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions. Recognising that APEC is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy," the bloc said.

Russia is a member of both G20 and APEC but President Vladimir Putin has stayed away from the summits. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov is representing him at APEC.

'BRAZEN VIOLATION'

The U.S. city of San Francisco will host the next APEC summit and Prime Minister Prayuth handed over the chair to Vice President Harris at a ceremony.

"We are ready to conduct a seamless cooperation with them," he said, while presenting Harris with a "chalom", a woven bamboo basket used to carry goods and gifts in Thailand.

A day earlier, North Korea's missile test just an hour before the APEC forum was inaugurated prompted Harris to call an emergency meeting with leaders from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand.

"This conduct by North Korea most recently is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions," Harris said.

Friday's launch came after U.S. President Joe Biden met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday in Bali and said Beijing has an obligation to try to talk North Korea out of resuming nuclear testing, while adding that it was unclear whether China would be able to sway Pyongyang.

Harris briefly met Xi on Saturday, a White House official said, adding that she had emphasised the importance to "maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries."

Ties between the superpowers have been strained in recent years over issues like tariffs, Taiwan, intellectual property, the erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy and disputes over the South China Sea.

Xi attended both the G20 and APEC summits and held a flurry of bilateral meetings, marking a return of the leader to the main stage of global diplomacy after China's long spell of COVID isolation.

Warning against Cold War tensions in a region that is a focus for competition between Beijing and Washington, Xi said on Thursday that the Asia-Pacific was no one's backyard and should not become an arena of big-power rivalry,

"No attempt to wage a new Cold War will ever be allowed by the people or by our times," he told a business event linked to the APEC summit.

Set up to promote economic integration, APEC's members account for 38% of the global population, and 62% of gross domestic product and 48% of trade.

Campaigners are keen to see leaders address issues such as food insecurity, surging inflation, climate change and human rights.

A reminder of grassroots demands came as Thai pro-democracy protesters clashed with police on Friday who responded by firing rubber bullets about 10 km (6 miles) from the central Bangkok summit venue. (Reuters)