Ruling Coalition Defeats Hard-Line Islamists
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From Times Wire Reports
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s moderate coalition won nationwide elections, handily defeating a hard-line party that wants to impose an Islamic state in the southeast Asian country.
Abdullah’s ethnically mixed Barisan Nasional, or National Front, coalition appeared close to winning all of Malaysia’s 13 provincial assemblies.
Barisan also scored a crucial two-thirds majority in Parliament, allowing the government to pass laws uncontested, taking almost 90% of the 219 seats with a handful of results still to come.
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