The Prime Minister of Malaysia waited for Anwar to return to parliament on further election

Anwar Ibrahim set his sights on a return to the front line of Malaysian politics when the elections began in an election poll that would likely seal the remarkable political uprising of the once-imprisoned opposition.

Winning the chair is an important requirement for Anwar to succeed the 93-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who imprisoned his former protege and heir in 1998 for sodomy and corruption, when their relationship soured.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (R) shows his support to Anwar Ibrahim during the campaign.

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Mahathir returned to the premiership this year after a shock election victory, saying he would stay in power for only two years before handing over the reins to Anwar.

Anwar was in jail when he forged an unlikely alliance with Mahathir in an attempt to lay off, when Prime Minister Najib Razak, who had held the May election amid massive accusations of corruption.

It underlined the drama of Saturday's vote, one of Anwar's six challengers is a former assistant who also accused the then opposition leader sodomy and put the 71-year-old in prison for the second time in 2014.

But the charismatic politician is expected to win an easy victory in the chair, which was evacuated after a member of the ruling coalition stepped back to bring about Anwar's return.

Polls were opened in a cloudy sky at 8:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) in the sleepy southern coastal town of Port Dickson, where a significant ethnic Chinese community lived that had been one of Anwar's pillars throughout the country.

"We are voting for the next prime minister, we need an influential leader to bring the long-awaited progress to Port Dickson," said 60-year-old elector Lee Tian Hock.

"This morning I prayed to Allah for a great victory for Anwar," retired truck driver Mat Taib, a member of the ethnic Malaysian majority of the country, told AFP.

"I want him to be our eighth prime minister."

About 100 supporters greeted Anwar with cries of "Reformasi" – his battle in the opposition – when he arrived at a polling station.

"The voter's rise is too slow and hopefully more will come out to vote after they have completed their work in hotels and factories," he said.

"I see you in parliament on Monday," he told an AFP reporter, smiling broadly.

Trailers ride with Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) flags.

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Charismatic politician

Anwar has been fighting hard over the past two weeks to obtain a mandate in the multi-racial constituency, to promise the development of voters, a clean government and a stimulus for local tourism.

He has not discussed the accusations of sodomy – an act that is still illegal in largely Malay Malaysia – on the campaign path. He has always maintained that the indictment was invented to derail his political career.

But he has stubbornly campaigned against the multi-billion-dollar transplant scandal at the 1MDB state fund, where former leader Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor were confronted with dozens of corruption charges.

Both see the prospect of being in prison for the rest of their lives in a scandal in which the Najib coalition lost its job for the first time since the country became independent from Great Britain in 1957.

Rosmah Mansor, wife of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, arrives at the Supreme Court of Kuala Lumpur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, October 4, 2018.

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Political heavyweights, including Mahathir, campaigned for Anwar on a way back to the office that was unthinkable six months ago.

The duo went on stage together during one campaign event and called wildly from supporters.

After being dumped and imprisoned as Minister of Finance in the 1990s, Anwar led a reformist opposition movement as he fought to defeat his beliefs.

Mahathir, his mentor, became the tormentor and now ally, came back from his retirement to lead the Alliance of Hope coalition that won power in May.