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©The Sunday Times, Singapore (Used by permission)

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has given a new date by which he claims he would be able to take over the government.

He said he had enough defectors from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to form a new administration possibly before Hari Raya Haji on Dec 8, the mass-selling newspaper Berita Harian yesterday quoted him as saying.

He gave the new deadline in a speech in Kelantan late on Friday. He had missed taking over the government by his self-imposed deadline of Sept 16.

'We have built our base to go forward - if it does not happen this week or next week, it can possibly happen before the Aidil Adha festival,' Datuk Seri Anwar told them.

Aidil Adha is the Muslim festival marking the end of the annual Haj pilgrimage and is also called Hari Raya Haji.

BN has 138 MPs in the 222-seat Parliament, after two MPs from a Sabah party left the coalition last month.

The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance has 81 MPs, after an independent MP said he would not support the takeover plan.

The three-party PR needs 29 lawmakers from BN to defect to form a majority in Parliament.

Mr Anwar also said the imminent changing of the prime minister - from Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi to Datuk Seri Najib Razak - would not stop him as people have low confidence in the government.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abdullah said the biggest challenge facing his successor is ensuring the continuation of Malaysia's racial unity.

'When every new generation comes, they have to be educated. This is an issue that will be with us for a very long time. This will be Najib's biggest challenge,' he told Bernama.

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