KUALA LUMPUR: The wife of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Saturday entered the race for the parliamentary seat vacated by her husband’s recent jailing over a much-criticised sodomy conviction, a party official said.

Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, an Irish-trained medical doctor and mother of six, filed her nomination papers for the by-election in Anwar’s constituency in the northern state of Penang, her party’s communications director Fahmi Fadzil said.

It marks the second time Wan Azizah, 62, has stepped in for her husband during one of his controversial imprisonments.

She won Anwar’s seat in 1999 after he was sacked as deputy prime minister in Malaysia’s long-ruling government and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges widely considered politically motivated.

The episode left her in control of a reform movement that emerged in response to Anwar’s ouster. The popular Anwar later became leader of a rejuvenated opposition, which he inspired to unprecedented gains in parliament.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2015

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