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Opposition Claims Victory In Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur (May 09, 2018): 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.Supporters of Mahathir Mohamad celebrate in Petaling JayaThe 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.

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