Malaysian opposition party reforms voting rules

(Yahoo News) – The party of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has extended voting rights to some 300,000 members to elect its top leaders, a major shift from how Malaysian political groups traditionally pick their officials, the group said Sunday.

The People's Justice Party approved the changes to its constitution Saturday, enabling every member to cast a ballot in elections for senior leaders next year instead of restricting the voting to about 1,000 top representatives.

Most Malaysian political parties only allow a select few to directly choose their top leaders _ a system that critics say is vulnerable to corruption.

The prime minister's governing United Malays National Organization party has increasingly faced accusations that candidates pay huge sums and fete voters at lavish feasts in exchange for their endorsements.

Anwar said the election system's overhaul would give it an edge over UMNO in democratic practices.

"We must remember to always stay progressive and egalitarian. This will differentiate us from UMNO," Anwar said in a statement Sunday on the party's news Web site.

UMNO is considering similar moves, though officials have said it would be logistically difficult to allow all 3 million members to cast ballots.

Anwar's party said it will also impose nine-year term limits for its president. Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, has held the post since 1999, but he is considered the party's de facto leader and is likely to take over the presidency by next year.

He is credited with uniting a three-party opposition alliance that wrested control of five of Malaysia's 13 states and won more than one-third of parliamentary seats in general elections last year. The opposition has said its ambition is to wrest federal power from the ruling coalition by the next national polls due in 2013.