REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JOHOR BARU - Malaysia's ruling coalition won the early results on Sunday in an election that could weaken or even end its 56-year rule, with the majority of seats yet to be decided as it faces an opposition pledging to clean up politics and end race-based policies.

With less than a quarter of parliamentary results confirmed in the Southeast Asian nation, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), or National Front, was leading with 37 seats in Sarawak to the opposition's 13, according to the country's Election Commission. But the opposition retained economically important Penang state as its leader Anwar Ibrahim with his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) sought to build on his alliance's stunning gains in 2008.

Either side needs 112 of 222 parliamentary seats to form a majority, although Prime Minister Najib Razak is under pressure to win back the two-thirds majority that the BN lost in the last national election in 2008. Final results were expected by early on Monday.

The coalition is expected to win, but opinion polls showed a tightening race with Najib struggling to translate strong economic growth and a deluge of social handouts into votes.

Before most votes were counted, Anwar with his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) declared victory in a surprise statement that appeared to be a tactic to whip up support. "PR has won," Anwar wrote on his Twitter account, urging the ruling party and the country's Election Commission "not to attempt to hijack the results".

Election officials said voter turnout in the country of 28 million people was about 80 percent, a record high in what could be the most closely contested election in 56 years of rule by the National Front coalition.

The last chance for Anwar?

The election represents possibly the last chance to lead Malaysia for Anwar, a former rising UMNO star who was sacked and jailed for six years in 1998 following a feud with then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who remains an influential figure.

The 65-year-old former deputy prime minister says his conctions on charges of corruption and sodomy were trumped up. He received a new lease on political life last year when a court acquitted him of a second sodomy charge.

His alliance, which includes an awkward partnership between a secular ethnic Chinese party with an Islamist party, says it presents a viable alternative to BN, given a record of governing in four states it took over in 2008.

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