BUTTERWORTH: Barisan Nasional and opposition supporters at the Permatang Pauh nomination centre yesterday were only 100m apart.

They were there to support Parti Keadilan Rakyat president Datin Seri Wan Azizah Ismail, who is defending her seat, and her second-time challenger, Datuk Pirdaus Ismail.

The two groups, which had assembled on the field at the Tengku Bainun Teaching Institute, traded insults and taunted each other over the heads of Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel, who had formed two lines between the supporters.

The insults were, however, harmless and there were no untoward incidents.

Shouts of PKR's battle cry "Reformasi" were met with shouts of "Hidup Barisan, Hidup Umno" from the BN supporters.
On one side, BN supporters carried the coalition flags as well as the flags of Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan. On the other side of the field, supporters carried PKR and Pas flags, with a large cluster of people wearing Bersih (Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections) T-shirts.

Pirdaus filed his nomination papers at 9.03am at the institute's Dewan Aminuddin Baki while Dr Wan Azizah filed hers at 9.15am.

In the last election of 2004, Dr Wan Azizah beat Pirdaus with a majority of 590 votes.

Dr Wan Azizah looked pleased with the large turnout of supporters.

"Look at the crowd. This is close to (how it was in) 1999," she said, referring to the first time she contested for Permatang Pauh.

When asked about his chances this time, Pirdaus, who is a former National Mosque imam (prayer leader) said he had a better chance this year because there would be no more sympathy votes for the incumbent.