Malaysia
Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s 92-year-old former strongman, will be sworn in as the country’s new Prime Minister after leading a coalition of former political enemies to an historic and stunning election victory that has toppled from power after 61 years the party he once ruled with an iron fist.
The victory, which few had predicted despite widespread anger over rising living costs and multi-billion dollar corruption scandals, means Malaysia will have its first-ever democratic transition of power since Independence in 1957.
“We are going to have the swearing in ceremony of the Prime Minister. Then the Prime Minister at his leisure may appoint his deputy prime minister and the other ministers,” Dr Mahathir told a 3am press conference called to declare the four party Pakatan Harapan coalition had won more than the 112 seats required to form government under Malaysia’s first-past-the-post system.
“The palace contacted us because they heard we achieved the majority, but it has not been officially announced,” he added.
While informal vote counts show the Pakatan Harapan had won as many as 122 of the 222 seats in parliament, and at least six state assemblies, Malaysians were still waiting overnight for the Election Commission to formally announce the final results.
Crowds of opposition supporters began gathering in a park near PH headquarters in suburban Petaling Jaya after polls closed at 5pm Wednesday with more people joining throughout the night to watch the historic victory unfold on a big screen.
Malaysians of all ages and ethnicities chanted “reformasi”, sang the national anthem and cheered jubilantly each time the opposition’s unofficial seat tally climbed.
Earlier in the night Dr Mahathir accused the Election Commission of delaying official results and said he feared it was an attempt to deny the opposition victory.
“It would seem that in many of the constituencies the counting has actually finished but the (polling) officers are refusing to sign form 14 and because of that an official announcement cannot be made,” he said around 11.15pm Wednesday (1.15am Thursday AEST).
“It’s likely there will be some hanky panky being done to try and frustrate the wishes of the people.
“Don’t take this lying down”.
Election Commissioner Mohamad Hashim Abdullah had been expected to hold a press conference around 9pm last night but it was after midnight when he finally faced the media to deny any deliberate attempt to delay results.
“We understand that the citizens are waiting but you have to give us more time to make the official announcement after all the results have been confirmed,” he said.
“We are not cheating. We need to confirm the results and we hope to citizens will be patient. We will know who has the mandate once the results come in.”
Almost two hours later he announced the PH was officially leading the vote count with 86 of the 222 seats, well ahead of BN on 67.
But there was no sign of defeated Prime Minister Najib Razak who had been scheduled to address the media at UMNO headquarters last night but will instead make an announcement at 11am (AEST1pm) this morning.
Rumours swirled that he was meeting with his National Security Council, raising fears that he could try to invoke a state of emergency as the night wore on and tempers inevitably flared.
By 1am Pakatan leaders were appealing for calm and warning people not to give the defeated government an excuse to do so.
Dr Mahathir, the country’s longest serving former Prime Minister, quit UMNO in 2016 in disgust over the alleged misappropriation of $US4.5 billion from the 1MDB state development fund overseen by Mr Najib.
He joined forces with jailed opposition leader and former nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim, this year to try and unseat his former protégé and restore power to democratic institutions he has since confessed were first whittled away under his government.
Dr Mahathir last night repeated his pledge to secure a royal pardon for Mr Anwar, who is serving the final days of his second jail term on trumped up sodomy charges (the first came during his time in office).
“We will work for his pardon,” he said. “Once he is pardoned he will certainly become Prime Minister.”
His new government would not seek revenge on outgoing leader Mr Najib, who is accused of involvement in the 1MDB scandal, though those found to have breached the law would be prosecuted, he added.
Yesterday’s poll was the closest Malaysian election in memory, with most analysts tipping a tight race in many of the 222 parliamentary seats though further dramatic gerrymandering of electoral boundaries in the government’s favour in recent month was popularly believed to have made it almost unassailable.
James Chin, a Tasmania University Malaysia expert, says voter sentiment likely swung further against the government following Mr Najib’s final election eve speech in which he promised tax exemptions for under 26 year olds, two public holidays and toll free roads over the islamic Id ul Fitri holiday.
By contrast Dr Mahathir promised broad institutional reforms and to restore the nation’s dignity following several years of international headlines over the 1MDB scandal.
Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at John Cabot University in Rome, said the “massive swing” across races was a “repudiation of Najib’s government from all walks of life, from the very rural northern states to the more industrial southern coast”.
