Investors looking for a clear-cut verdict in the November 29 vote could be disappointed by an outcome that leaves Mahathir firmly in office but facing a substantially stronger opposition. ``Both sides could end up claiming a victory of sorts,'' said Abdul Razak Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre.

Much has been made of the two-thirds threshold in the lower house of parliament which Mahathir's Barisan Nasional (BN) has never failed to hold since the coalition was formed in 1974.

That margin in the 193-seat parliament is needed to amend the constitution.A two-thirds victory, while substantially below the BN's 1995 romp, could strengthen mahathir's position ahead of his United Malays national Organisation (UMNO) leadership elections in mid-2000, and perhaps lessen the chances of anearly challenge to his rule.

But its significance is as much symbolic. The four-party opposition alliance agreed months ago that it could not achieve an outright victory, and would instead aim to deny mahathir that benchmark and look to the next polls for power. Mahathir agrees that his 14-party multi-ethnic coalition must win at least 129 of 193 seats to stand proud. But the task is complicated by the BN's awesome performance in 1995, which gave it 166 seats in the outgoing parliament more than 86 per cent of the seats.

The opposition held only 22 seats and independent candidates three in the 192-seat parliament, while one spot was vacant. Another constituency has been added for this year's elections.

The opposition would need to win 65 races on November 29 to reach the magic one-third threshold almost tripling its current standing. That would give the opposition by far its strongest toehold in the federal parliament since the bn was formed in 1974, topping its score of 53 seats in 1990 whenMahathir's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) split.

The opposition might claim a moral victory if it merely doubled its 1995 score and put its new component party, Parti Keadilan Nasional headed by former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim' wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, into parliament.