The modest Chinatown in the capital of Terengganu state has been a major focus of the campaign for Saturday's vote, viewed as a test of the government's popularity since disastrous general election results last year.

"I think I've seen all the top politicians and VIPs in this country in the past week of the campaign -- and I've never seen them here before," Tan Chew Kuiw told AFP outside the city's historic Ho Ann Kiong Temple.

"Whoever wins, I just hope they keep their promises," said the 22-year-old, who teaches the traditional "lion dance" and has been called out every night to perform for visiting dignitaries.

The 213-year-old temple is a landmark in "Kampung Cina" or "Chinese Village", alongside an arch that greets visitors to the enclave, home to many of the ethnic Chinese who make up 11 percent of the electorate.

Terengganu state is seen as the heartland of Muslim Malays, who dominate the population of multicultural Malaysia and have been the bedrock of the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled for half a century.

But since the stunning March 2008 general elections, which saw the coalition lose five states and a third of parliamentary seats, it has been attempting to curry support both with Malays and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians.

Leaders from the Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance have been making round-the-clock house-to-house visits as well as holding dinners and political talks to canvas votes.

The city's Chinatown is a humble affair, a straight road lined with about 70 shops including restaurants, souvenir stalls and several buildings that are home to swallows whose nests are harvested for the famed traditional soup.

But it has been the centre of a flurry of activity in recent days, after polls showed that the Malay vote is split, meaning the result might be determined by ethnic Chinese who are leaning towards the opposition.

"The ethnic Chinese votes will be significant... as the Malays' voting tendency is still hard to gauge so far and seem too close to call," said Wong Chin Huat, a political analyst at the Monash University campus in Kuala Lumpur.

The opposition alliance is fielding a candidate from the Islamic party PAS -- which ruled Terengganu state from 1999-2004 -- highlighting policy differences with its partners, the multiracial Keadilan and the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party.

A PAS call to reintroduce "hudud" Islamic law, including the amputation of hands for thieves, created controversy and has been played up by the coalition's Chinese-based party the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA).

A survey by the Merdeka Centre research firm however found that only 18 percent of Chinese voters in Kuala Terengganu saw the issue as "very important".

"Why should I be afraid of hudud? If PAS seriously enforce it when it comes into power, we can throw them out in the next election," said Tan, the lion dance coach.

"We were free to eat pork or consume alcohol when PAS ruled the state previously. Hudud is only meant for the Muslim Malays, not us," said Mr Heng, a 50-year-old construction worker.

Despite the mild response to the hudud issue, MCA vice-president Liow Tiong Lai denied the coalition has shot itself in the foot by focussing its energies on the controversy.

"We will intensify our house-to-house visit to explain to voters because they don't understand the serious implications and far-reaching impact if PAS pushes through hudud," Liow told AFP.

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