Historic win for Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia election
Malaysia’s outgoing Prime Minister Najib Razak says he has accepted the “verdict of the people” but stopped short of conceding defeat.
Malaysia’s outgoing Prime Minister Najib Razak says he has accepted the “verdict of the people” but stopped short of conceding defeat in historic elections yesterday which swept his corruption-plagued government from power.
“I accept the verdict of the people and Barisan Nasional are now committed to the principles of parliamentary democratic,” a downcast and tired Mr Najib said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning.
“Because no party has got a simple majority the king will make a decision on who will be appointed as Prime Minister. Barisan Nasional will respect whatever decision made by the king. “
The ambiguous concession speech immediately fuelled speculation that the defeated Barisan Nasional, which has held unbroken government for 61 years, was attempting to lure MPs from other parties into its coalition as it has done in previous elections.
The difference this time however is the scale of at defeat.
The government was swept out of power in an extraordinary election tsunami which united Malaysians across ethnic, religious, age and geographic divides.
In its final announcement at 440am Malaysian time the election commission announced that the four party Pakatan Harapan opposition led by Mahathir Mohamad and his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim had captured a simple majority of 113 seats.
Under the country’s first past the post system a minimum 112 of the 222 parliamentary seats is required to form government.
In contrast the Barisan Nasional won just 79 seats. Even if it were to cobble together an alliance of every other party it would still not have enough seats to get over the line.
Malaysia’s strongman returns
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”.
Poll goes down to the wire
Malaysian voters formed long queues yesterday, defying the inconvenience of a mid-week poll to cast their ballot in what is expected to be one of the country’s closest elections.
The election is a bitter contest between Prime Minister Najib Razak and his 92-year-old former mentor, Mahathir Mohamad.
Pollsters had predicted a tight race in many of the 222 parliamentary seats up for grabs this election, with 37 seats too close to call, though an election-eve survey by the independent Merdeka Centre tipped a narrow victory for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.
In Kuala Lumpur, voters began lining up in some districts an hour before polls opened at 8am, many excited at the possibility of the first democratic transition of power in 61 years since independence.
“For the first time there is an actual competition,” said Thevi, a 48-year-old doctor waiting to vote in Lembah Pantai.
The seat has been held for 10 years by Nurul Izzah Anwar, daughter of jailed opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition leader Anwar Ibrahim, but she is now contesting in Penang after electoral boundary realignments shifted 7000 likely pro-government police votes into the district.
“To see our former prime minister come back aged 92 to fight for the country tells me that all of us should do that too,” said Thevi.
Media technician Rizal, 43, said he was angry about government corruption, particularly the alleged misappropriation of $US4.5 billion from the 1MDB development fund, which Mr Najib oversaw as its advisory board chairman.
“Their explanations are all BS,” he said. “We’re not stupid people. We know if we do not change government the country is going down.”
Dr Mahathir is again running for prime minister after quitting the ruling United Malays National Organisation in 2016 in protest over the 1MDB scandal and joining forces with Mr Anwar, his one-time nemesis, to try to unseat Mr Najib.
The veteran politician’s message of government corruption and gross economic mismanagement has cut through with many voters.
Some analysts predicted yesterday his final election-eve address appealing to Malaysians to restore the nation’s dignity may have swayed more critical Malay votes. Merdeka’s election-eve poll showed support for BN had dropped to 37.3 per cent — even less than in 2013 when it lost the popular vote but retained government thanks to gerrymandering and a first-past-the-post voting system.
Those factors are again tipped to work in the incumbent’s favour, though many were bracing for possible violence in the event of an election upset.
Some big businesses provided safety briefings to staff ahead of yesterday’s vote in case of a repeat of 1969 election violence when expectations of an opposition victory sparked deadly rioting, mostly targeting the ethnic Chinese minority. Some hotels set aside rooms for staff.
Voting stations remained calm throughout the day despite some claims that ballot papers were pre-marked in favour of the BN candidate, and that several voters had found their names already crossed off polling station lists.
By 3pm, 69 per cent of the country’s 14.9 million eligible voters had cast their ballots, with long queues of people still waiting to vote, buoying opposition hopes given a higher participation rate would reflect an appetite for change.
But opposition appeals for voting hours to be extended beyond 5pm to allow people to vote who had already been queuing before the close of polls were rejected, resulting in tense standoffs in several seats.
Malaysia expert Bridget Welsh said turnout was likely to fall short of 2013’s record 85 per cent because of the weekday poll, though “if it gets to 75 per cent, it keeps the opposition in play”.
The more critical issue would be where participation rose and fell — such as if traditional UMNO voters stayed home, she said.
Roads out of Kuala Lumpur were jammed from Tuesday afternoon as many thousands began driving to home provinces to vote.
In central Kuala Lumpur, hundreds gathered to take free buses organised by the crowd-sharing #PulangMengundi (go home to vote) movement.
Nadia and Nadira, both 24-year-old Malay Muslims heading back to vote in the battleground state of Johor, said they supported Pakatan Harapan because of Dr Mahathir.
“Most of our friends will also choose Tun Mahathir,” said Nadira. “His age is not important but his leadership skills are, and we are confident in the people around him.”
Their votes will be critical this election. Ethnic Malays make up almost 70 per cent of the vote while 40 per cent of eligible voters are aged between 21 and 39, up from 30 per cent in 2013.
Acknowledging that fact, Mr Najib made a last-ditch pitch for the youth vote on election eve by pledging income tax exemptions for all workers 26 years and under, and a full tax refund for the previous year. The enticement drew protests from the opposition, which accused him of abusing his position as caretaker prime minister, but little fanfare from young voters yesterday.
“Most of us in this age group don’t earn enough to be taxable given how low graduate salaries are,” said Mohamad Nizam Mohamad Nur, a 25-year-old Grab (similar to Uber) driver who had been queuing two hours to vote.
“It looks like the government is desperate for youth support but the time is ripe for a change.”
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