Observer
Senior Member
- Oct 18, 2006
- 188
- 290
Waziri Mkuu wa zamani wa Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad ameshinda uchaguzi mkuu wa nchi hiyo na kuchaguliwa kuwa Waziri Mkuu mpya, miaka 15 baada ya kujiuzulu wadhifa huo alioushikilia kwa zaidi ya miaka 20
Mahathir Mohamad anayeongoza muungano wa vyama vya upinzani, walipata viti 121 dhidi ya viti 79 ilichopata Chama cha Barisan Nasional kinachoongozwa na Waziri Mkuu wa sasa wa Malaysia Najib Lazak
Pia Soma --> Aliyekuwa Waziri Mkuu wa Malaysia Mahathir Mohamed Kugombea tena Uwaziri Mkuu
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has suffered a stunning elections loss to former leader Mahathir Mohamad, who at 92 is set to become the world's oldest leader.
Scandal-plagued Najib, 64, was thrashed at the polls by a coalition of parties led by Mahathir, who led the country for 22 years and came out of retirement to challenge Najib in the country's 14th general election.
The defeat is a humiliating fall from grace for Najib, the scion of one of Malaysia's most prominent political families, and his coalition party, Barisan Nasional, which had led the country since its independence 61 years ago.
With all 222 seats in the country's Parliament accounted for, Mahathir's coalition had officially won 121 seats -- enough to form a simple majority and take control of the House. Barisan Nasional, in contrast, only had 79 seats -- a far cry from the 133 it won in the 2013 election.
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station during Malaysia's 14th general election on Wednesday. The country's Prime Minister Najib Razak suffered a stunning defeat at the polls.
The bloodbath did not end there -- Najib also saw several members of his Cabinet, ministers and deputy ministers, defeated at the polls, and crashed out of eight of the battles for control of 12 state legislatures contested in the election.
According to a statement by the country's Election Commission, over 76% of the 14.3 million eligible voters in the country turned out to cast their ballots, which opened at 8 a.m. local time and went on until 5 p.m. The turnout was lower than the 85% the country saw in 2013.
While the defeat surely spells the end of Najib's political career, for Mahathir, it represents the culmination of a stunning return to power, a decade-and-a-half after retirement.
Remarkable victory
Mahathir's victory is all the more remarkable considering he is 92 years old, and was fighting the very party he led for over two decades.
Former Malaysian prime minister and opposition party Pakatan Harapan's candidate Mahathir Mohamad shows his inked finger as he casts his vote Tuesday.
Bridget Welsh, a John Cabot University expert on Malaysian politics, said Barisan Nasional could have won the elections had it not been for Najib.
"Najib is a liability. His narcissism cost them the elections," she said, of a Barisan Nasional campaign that featured Najib and his election promises as a centrepiece.
Welsh added Najib's re-election campaign never really took off.
"He used racial politics and money, like he did in 2013, but it did not have the same traction.
"This was a Malaysian tsunami across races, generations and background."
James Chin, the director at the Asia Institute in the University of Tasmania, said Najib had "finally run out of tricks" and said Mahathir had pulled off a masterstroke in snatching the rural vote away from Najib.
He compared the campaign speeches given by the two men on Tuesday night, hours before voting began. "Najib was still playing the bribery game -- you give me your vote, I give you this or that. Mahathir, on the other hand, came across as a statesman and appealed to Malay dignity," he said.
Chin called out two things that helped turn the tide against Najib -- a high voter turnout and the swing in rural support.
"Even if the rural voters didn't understand 1MDB, they understood that some monkey business was happening. And so the Najib brand became toxic," he said.
