Political foes Chua Soi Lek and Lim Guan Eng faced each other for the second time in a public debate today in a battle for the hearts and minds of Malaysian, and in particular Chinese, voters.

After the inaugural Mandarin debate in February, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) hosted today’s face-off in English to reach a larger 1,400-strong audience.

Titled ‘Whose policies benefit the country more?’ MCA chief Chua and DAP secretary-general and Penang chief minister Lim spoke on their respective coalitions’ blueprints for the country.

While Round 1 was broadcasted live over Astro , this round saw a delayed telecast at 11pm tonight on Astro AEC with a simultaneous Bahasa Malaysia translation on Astro Awani .

The debate moderator this time was Asli chief executive officer Michael Yeo, while the panellists were Housing and Local Government Minister and MCA vice-president Chor Chee Heung, DAP party organ Rocketkini’s chief editor Wan Hamidi Hamid and Asli representative Monash University’s School of Social Sciences head James Chin.

And this time round, questions from the floor were in written form only, and drawn at random from a box by the moderator and the two debaters, possibly to avoid the Miss Towtruck fiasco last year.

LIVE REPORTS

2.30pm: The hall erupts as rival supporters stand up to welcome the debaters...