Arif Shah vs Anwar Ibrahim

Seberang Jaya assemblyperson Arif Shah Omar Shah was named as an umno candidate against Anwar Ibrahim in P44 Permatang Pauh. Ariff Shah win 2004 general election when he defeated Dr Mansor Othman of PKR with a 4,464-vote majority. In the March 8 polls, he retained the seat for the second term after beating Ramli Bulat also of PKR but the majority was slashed to 533 votes. The decision to pick Arif Shah shows umno was running out of the quality candidate to stand against the ex deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. In earlier press statement, Ahmad Saad said, kampung folk want him to contest the by-election and definitely un-picked, umno division head feel sidelined although he was short listed earlier. Either one is going to back stab Arif Shah but then he don't lost anything because he is the assembly man for state but if he win, he will be the Cabinet minister in first Cabinet reshuffle after the 12th GE.