PETALNG JAYA, March 10 — PKR president Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Ismail is no stranger to politics. 

She had contested and won Permatang Pauh in Penang handsomely before making way for her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to take over.

However, Wan Azizah now has to contest in the Kajang by-election instead of Anwar, who is the PKR de facto leader, after he was disqualified from standing following his sodomy conviction last Friday. 

Azizah had also been hoping that Anwar could take over as PKR president during the coming party polls but it appears she has to hold on to it. 

For the Kajang by-election, Wan Azizah does not seem to have much problems in garnering votes for the party and its partners PAS and DAP expect her to secure a majority of more than the 6,000 obtained in the general election last year.  

Besides counting on the groundwork her husband has done in the last one month, she is also expected to garner some sympathy votes from constituents who regard her as a good woman and a loyal wife.

Sympathy is the word that will speak louder than other issues during the campaign period which begins tomorrow and this will influence the more than 20,000 female voters more than anything else.

Issues that her husband had raised all along as well as the issues highlighted to gain votes are expected to take a back seat.

Wan Azizah’s line of campaigning is expected to be on the manner in which her husband had been convicted.

Actually, Anwar’s conviction could have spared him the embarrassment of winning with a lower majority due to feelings on the grounds and the feud between PKR deputy president Azmin Ali and Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim. 

Barisan Nasional candidate Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun of MCA, may therefore find her fight tougher than expected and the possibility of reducing the opposition’s majority polled in the last general election seems very remote now.