Voters have a stark choice in Malaysia’s election on Wednesday: resurrect the country’s 92-year-old former authoritarian leader or give a third term to Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose alleged role in the multibillion-dollar ransacking of a state investment fund has battered Malaysia’s standing overseas.
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Business is comfortable with a National Front victory because they’re uncertain about what policies the opposition would introduce, but that victory would come at a longer-term cost, he said, “weakening institutions and leaving the country with more entrenched identity politics”.
“The time is very late now”.
“It would seem that in numerous constituencies the counting has actually finished, but the officer concerned refused to sign Form 14”.
“We believe that from our official counting that they’re left far behind”.
“If the opposition resorts to undemocratic means to acquire power, they will never rule democratically”, Razak said.
“If people’s frustration boils over, that could give Najib an excuse for a crack down”. Voters in some areas were turned away by election officials for wearing shorts and flip-flops, despite a statement from the Electoral Commission’s chairman the day before that there wouldn’t be a dress code for voters.
Shortly after his news conference, returns on the EC website began rapidly updating, with the opposition bloc taking 42 to the ruling coalition 38.
In the previous election, in 2013, the opposition made unprecedented gains, winning the popular vote, but it failed to win enough seats to form a government.
Today’s polls would feature more than 60 straight fights at both parliamentary and state seats, three-cornered fights at more than 400 seats, four-way fights in 76 seats, five-cornered battles in 21 seats.
But some key BN figures appeared to have fallen, with unofficial results on Bernama state news agency showing the heads of the ethnic Indian and Chinese parties in the coalition had lost their seats.
In a win that overturns decades of dominance by the country’s main coalition, Mahathir has secured an unlikely second act in the twilight of his political career.
Almost 14.5 million Malaysians were eligible to vote in the election and the turn out was about 75 per cent, down from the 2013 election. The Election Commission said that after three hours of voting the turnout had been 36 percent. “Many were out early to cast their ballot”. “But at the end of the day, it’s people’s power”, he told reporters after casting his vote. He added that the most important thing is that voters fulfil their responsibility to determine the future of the country.
He has endured controversies during his nine years as Malaysia’s leader and has been embroiled in a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal.
Dr Mahathir was the country’s authoritarian leader for 22 years until 2003.
The opposition claimed the contest was skewed by a revision of electoral boundaries and a decision to hold the poll midweek, which it said would discourage millions from voting.
In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hassan in 2016, Mahathir said he chose to turn against Najib because he had “gone off track”.
“People want change; if it was not for fear or for electoral cheats, the BN would not see any victory tomorrow”, she said.
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In a speech on the northwest island of Langkawi, which was broadcast live to rallies across the country and on Facebook, Mahathir urged voters to swing behind his opposition alliance, Pact of Hope.
