Jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim is unlikely to be a factor in the forthcoming general election despite his crucial impact at the last polls, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi predicted today.

Launching his election campaign in his home constituency of Kepala Batas in Penang, Abdullah acknowledged that some people might be "sympathetic towards him".

But, he said, they would vote for the ruling Barisan Nasional on March 21 because it had the capacity to deliver development.

He told a news conference after addressing a gathering of some 500 people that the Parti Keadilan Rakyat, headed by Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, was collapsing and party members were rejoining the BN.

"In spite of being sympathetic towards him they will want to vote National Front. It is many times stronger than Keadilan and we have the capacity to deliver development programmes," he said.

Forgotten man

The waning of public shows of support for Anwar in the last couple of years appears to back up Abdullah's claim that the popular former leader has become the forgotten man of Malaysian politics.

"Most of us have short memories," wrote a commentator in the government-supporting New Straits Times on Saturday.

"And this is probably why the Anwar Ibrahim factor - a hugely significant one in the 1999 polls - is no longer on the front-burner in this election."

Anwar is serving a 15 year jail sentence on corruption and sodomy charges which he claimed were trumped up to prevent him challenging former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad after he was sacked in 1998.

Thousands took to the streets to demonstrate their support for him after he was fired, and the newly-established Keadilan took five parliamentary seats in the 1999 election.

Mahathir retired last October, and ruling party supporters see this is as another reason to hope that anger over the Anwar issue will not play much of a part in this election.

Disgust over Anwar's treatment was also blamed for the defection at the last polls of masses of Muslim Malay voters from Umno, the linchpin of the ruling coalition, to the hardline Islamic party PAS.

Bigger threat

PAS, which tripled its parliamentary seats in the 1999 elections and won power in a second of Malaysia's 13 states, poses a much bigger threat to Umno than Keadilan does and the election will be watched closely to see whether Islamic fundamentalism is gaining ground.

PAS, which wants theocratic rule in this rapidly-developing multiracial nation, has made it clear that it plans to capitalise during the campaign on the involvement of a company owned by Abdullah's son Kamaluddin in the international nuclear black market scandal.

Party president Abdul Hadi Awang claimed Friday that the United States was protecting Abdullah over the affair because it feared PAS coming to power. The US "will never allow the establishment of an Islamic government anywhere", he said.

The company has admitted making centrifuge parts seized on a ship bound for Libya and its nuclear weapons programme, but said it had been misled about the purpose and destination of the parts.

It has been cleared of any wrongdoing by a police probe, but Abdul Hadi said this was a whitewash which proved that Abdullah was not sincere in his pledges to clean up government corruption -- one of the main complaints against the ruling elite.

Abdullah Saturday called the PAS allegations "character assassination". - AFP