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KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA is likely to call elections by early March, a newspaper reported on Thursday, citing a government minister and political analysts.
'The elections will be held soon enough - latest by the first week of March,' The Star quoted an unnamed senior minister as saying.
'Everybody is ready. If we wait any longer, fatigue will set in,' he told the largest-selling English daily adding that the ruling coalition had completed dry runs to test the readiness of the election machinery in several states. The paper suggested March 7-16 as the likely polling period, pointing to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's public engagements in the preceding time which included a meet-the-people session and the launch of an economic development plan in several states later this month.
Mr Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz have not lined up any trips abroad in February and March, their aides said, in another sign that polls were around the corner.
The prime minister's office was not immediately available for comment.
General elections are not due until next year but Mr Abdullah has been widely expected to advance them to capitalise on a raft of state construction projects launched in the past 18 months.
The economy is one of the few bright spots for Mr Abdullah's government, which has been battling allegations of racial and religious discrimination against the country's minorities and corruption in the civil service. -- REUTERS
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