Malaysian PM rules out early poll

Dr Mahathir is due to stand down later this year

By Jonathan Kent BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur

The prime minister of Malaysia has ended months of speculation that he would call an early general election.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad says that there will be no poll before his planned retirement in October.

Ever since last June, when Dr Mahathir announced his intention to stand down, Malaysia's political parties have been gearing up for a general election.

Dr Mahathir now says that he will leave the timing to his deputy, Abdullah Badawi, who is due to take over in October.

The two men have very different styles - Abdullah Badawi is a far more softly spoken figure than Dr Mahathir, and it was widely believed that the prime minister would use his vast campaigning experience to try to hand his successor a victory.

Building a campaign

However, the delay gives Mr Badawi the chance to win in his own right and establish his authority.

Mr Badawi sits in Dr Mahathir's shadow

It also gives Dr Mahathir's United Malays National Organisation (Umno) party, which leads the government coalition, more time to build its campaign against the Islamist opposition Pas (Parti Islam se-Malaysia).

Support for the Islamists held up well in a series of by-elections last year.

The government will also hope that support for another opposition party, Keadilan, will weaken over time.

Keadilan is struggling because its main political asset, the former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, remains behind bars.

Unmo has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, by leading a series of broad-based coalitions that cut across the country's racial and religious divides.

The government has until late next year to call a general election.