Two ethnic Indian members of the Hindu Rights Action Force, which spearheaded protests by the community pressing for racial equality, will contest in the March 8 election, campaigning for which was formally kicked off on Sunday.

As hundreds filed their nomination papers for the 222 parliamentary seats and 505 state legislature seats, six candidates from Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which has governed since 1957, were elected unopposed.

Hindraf's A Sivanesan is among the 11 lawyers contesting for the opposition DAP. He will face Malaysian Indian Congress vice president SVeerasingam in Sundkai seat in Perak state.

MIC, headed by Samy Vellu, is a party of the ruling coalition and has received flak in recent months for not doing enough for the ethnic Indian community, which has held several street protests against its alleged marginalisation.

M Manoharan, who is currently held under the draconian Internal Security Act that allows indefinite detention without trial along with four other Hindraf members for organising the November 25 rally of ethnic Indians here, is also in the fray.

Nearly 10,000 ethnic Indians participated in the unprecedented rally, which rattled the government in this multi-racial country.

Manoharan will face Barisan Nasional's Ching Su Chen for the Kota Alam Shan state seat.

Premier Abdullah, filing his nomination papers at Kepala Batas in northern Penang state, said he believed that the people will vote for Barisan Nasional, which he stressed had brought peace and progress for 50 years in this country.

Abdullah will face opposition Pan Malaysian Islamic party there.

The 2004 election saw the 14-party Barisan Nasional sweeping the polls with only 19 of the 219 parliamentary seats going to the opposition.

The ruling coalition has fielded old faces, including Vellu, the only ethnic Indian minister who had opposed the Hindraf-led protests.

Abdullah defended his line-up, saying, "The party must be led by those who have experience because we don't want problems which may affect our chances to crop up due to inexperience."