The three candidates vying for the Gaya parliamentary seat are now in the thick of campaigning with each singing their respective tune of development, reforms and justice.

Barisan Nasional candidate Liew Teck Chan who was picked to defend the seat for the ruling coalition remains the frontrunner followed by Keadilan lawyer Christina Liew and businessman Hiew King Cheu of DAP.

Liew with the might of the ruling coalition on his back will bank on his gentle soft-spoken personality against Christina's agenda to right wrongs in the system and Hiew's pledge to provide the sole opposition voice from Sabah in Parliament.

Since former opposition Parti Bersatu Sabah's return to the BN, Sabah has no opposition members left in both the parliament and the state legislative assembly.

The remaining days for campaigning will see the three candidates traverse the capital city for the Chinese votes that makes an approximate 40 percent of the total number of voters, the coastal areas for the Muslim votes consisting slightly less then 40 percent and inland for the Kadazandusun votes for some 20 percent of the constituents.

Main issues that will likely be raised are the rapid development the BN has brought in to the constituency since returning to power in 1994, inconsistent government policies particularly related to the closure of one of the city's busy Gaya Street, presence of phantom voters linked to the large presence of immigrants in the state, relocation of squatters following the large-scale swoop in the state dubbed Ops Nyah II Bersepadu and the increase of parking fees in the City Centre township as well as introduction of parking fees at the city outskirts.

The opposition is likely to anchor on the ruling government's failure in putting to rest the problems that are deeply rooted among the residents. Meanwhile, BN will counter some of the issues by stressing that these problems are being discussed within the coalition.

Impact of PBS defection

The three-way contest will also test several factors; namely the people's response towards PBS which garnered over 11,000 votes in Gaya in the last parliamentary election in 1999, the party's return into the BN fold, the people's needs for at least one opposition member in the state and their sentiments towards the events that led to the by-election.

The by-election was called after Sabah Progressive Party president Yong Teck Lee was disqualified by the Election Commission as the Likas assemblyperson a state constituency that makes up part of Gaya and as member of parliament for Gaya on Sept 18.

The EC has upheld an infamous decision by the Election Court in June last year when High Court Judge Mohd Kamil Awang ruled that Yong had committed corrupt practice in the 1999 state elections in Likas.

The ruling was made on a petition filed by the then opposition PBS Likas candidate Dr Chong Eng Leong and former chief minister Harris Salleh who had each filed a petition claiming among others that Yong had committed corrupt practice and that the electoral roll used in the election then was tainted with names of phantom voters.

A by-election was subsequently called for in July last year for Likas and Yong contested after successfully obtaining a stay of execution to the ruling which had otherwise meant that he would automatically lost his status as an assemblyman and as a voter.

A series of court battles ensued and eventually after exhausting all legal procedures right up to the Federal Court, the decision that Yong had committed corrupt practice was upheld. He sought a pardon from the King and that too failed because there is no clause in the constitution that says he can be pardoned for committing such an offence.

Liew, 54, a Yong loyalist for the past 17 years from the time they were in PBS will be pledging continuity of the coalition's service to the people. Together with Yong, Liew who is also the SAPP Likas division chief has served consistently through a long list of community programmes in the state capital.

'Stand-in' for Yong

The most popular is the SAPP mobile service unit that provides an avenue for people to lodge complaints at its Gaya Street sidewalk office headed by Yong while he was constituency's assemblyman and MP.

The party also has its mobile library and clinic that moves to various villages within the constituency almost every week throughout the year.

"I will continue the good work of Yong if I am re-elected," pledged Liew after being named as the candidate. Party insiders are however saying Liew would only be "standing-in" for Yong whilst the latter is in "suspension" for five years for the offence under the Election Offences Act.

"Liew is one of the most loyal right-hand man to Yong. He has represented Yong at many party functions but most of all he is a nice man. He is a kind of man one will find hard to get angry with," a SAPP member said.

"Liew will step in for now for Yong and once the five years is up, I think he will likely step aside or switch seats," the member said of the party that also has BN stalwarts such as Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Tham Nyip Shen and State Social Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Raymond Tan Shu Kiah, who are both from the east-coast district of Sandakan.

"We do not believe that Tham and Tan will make any move to take the lead in the party because Yong still commands the authority and respect over the party members, and five years is not that longhe is still young," he said. Yong, a lawyer by profession, first joined politics in 1985 at the age of 26.

Keadilan's Christina Liew, 50, arguably the most vocal opposition party member in Sabah since PBS returned to BN, is hitting the streets with her pledge of becoming the people's sole opposition representative. The former PBS and later MCA leader appears to be coming of age in her politics after being given the mandate from Keadilan for the second time, the first being the Likas by-election last year.

"We have served the people of Sabah since last year and we will be able to voice the people's grievances even better in parliament," she stressed in a recent press conference.

A local campaign

The by-election will also be a testing ground of sort for the Sabah Keadilan liaison committee, as local members will operate the whole campaign machinery unlike the Likas by-election where the party's top leaders from the peninsula ran the show. Leaders from the peninsula will still be helping out, Christina said, but they will largely play the advisory role.

Christina has pledged to take over the role of PBS when it was still in the opposition to fight against the existence of phantom voters.

Other political issues include the fate of Gaya Street, which was closed and opened and closed and re-opened, and the permanent closure of the bypass to another street called Jalan Jati.

The move had angered the business community within the area and exploited to the fullest by PBS before and now Keadilan. There is also the question on alleged irregularities by BN that erected campaign billboards even before nomination day and yet another legal battle appears to be on the cards.

A popular face around the city with her charming and lively personality, Christina has made in-roads since the Likas by-election where she secured some 2,000 votes but whether this is sufficient to wrest the seat from BN will depend on the support from the Muslim bumiputera and Kadazandusun voters. The Chinese voters will likely be split over the three candidates.

As for DAP candidate Hiew, a businessman who used to be active in politics before resigning a few years back, the Chinese community are those whose votes he hopes to attract. Hiew, who came out of retirement to combat injustice against the people just four months ago, believes the people of Gaya is in dire need for an opposition member.

Seen as a spoiler for Keadilan, Hiew has thus far led a signature petition over the raising of parking fees in the city centre and introduction of such fees in suburban areas within the state capital. The parking fee issue will likely be his key issue as the move by City Hall in the last three months had jolted thousands of citizens who work in the central business district.

Likewise, DAP will also pry into the illegal immigrant issue, issuance of Malaysian documents to foreigners including the latest MyKad and the resettlement of local squatters effected by the on-going Ops Nyah II Bersepadu, an integrated operation aimed at weeding out illegal immigrants and demolition of squatter colonies across Sabah.

These are issues once raised by the PBS when it was in the opposition.

Johnny Antod is malaysiakini's Sabah-based correspondent.