KUALA TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA: It will be a three-cornered fight in the Kuala Terengganu by-election.

All the hype that the contest could turn into a six-cornered one fizzled out when only three candidates had their nomination papers accepted yesterday.

The by-election will see a contest among Barisan Nasional's Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, Pas' Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut and independent candidate Azharuddin Mamat @ Adam.

Although Azharuddin is a local, his candidacy is a surprise as the 46-year-old traditional medicine seller is an unknown.

Three others -- grandmother Maimun Yusof, Rantau Panjang Umno renegade Ismail Airfath and a candidate from Angkatan Keadilan Insan Malaysia -- had been speculated as candidates.

Maimun, who had lost her deposit contesting the same seat in the March general election, and Ismail did not turn up.

Akim vice-president Harun Muhammad turned up but did not file his nomination papers.

BN and Pas will now go into the contest with crucial objectives of their own -- the former bent on proving that it is still a political force to be reckoned with and the latter intending to consolidate the belief that the opposition was now the new choice of Malaysians.

Nominations opened at 9am yesterday. By then the city centre was already gridlocked with traffic after the police blocked off two major roads leading to the state stadium used as the nomination centre.

The 30,000 crowd, separated by a 500-metre buffer zone, was boisterous as expected. Although taunts were hurled at each other across the zone, the crowd was otherwise well-behaved. Pas supporters chanted Quranic verses while those on the BN side sang patriotic and party songs.

When some 400 Pas supporters veered into the car park of the Sultanah Nurzahira Hospital near the nomination centre, they were quickly moved back into position by Federal Reserve Unit personnel.

The first to file his nomination papers, at 9.13am, was Wan Farid, who was accompanied into the centre by Umno deputy president and by-election director Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said. Wahid submitted his papers at 9.18am followed by Azharuddin 40 minutes later.

Four objections were levelled by agents and lawyers from the Pas camp.

The first was that Wan Farid had not provided a letter confirming he had resigned from all government posts and the second that Azharuddin's proposer and seconder had not signed in front of witnesses.

Returning officer Datuk Mat Razali Kassim rejected them saying Wan Farid had brought his resignation letter and proposers and seconders did not need to sign in front of witnesses.