International Elections Digest: Opposition ends six decades of governing-party rule in Malaysia
newsdepo.com
Leading Off ● Malaysia – parliament (May 9) In a potentially groundbreaking development for Malaysian democracy, the opposition Pakatan Harapan alliance won a parliamentary majority for the first time ever in elections earlier this month, delivering a mInternational Elections Digest: Opposition ends six decades of governing-party rule in Malaysia
Leading Off ● Malaysia – parliament (May 9) In a potentially groundbreaking development for Malaysian democracy, the opposition Pakatan Harapan alliance won a parliamentary majority for the first time ever in elections earlier this month, delivering a major defeat to the right-of-center Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has ruled the country ever since it won independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. Campaign Action This victory was particularly notable because BN had gone to the limit and beyond in a desperate effort to retain power: They threw opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in prison on trumped-up sodomy charges for a second time; they gerrymandered electoral districts; and they even moved Election Day to a weekday from its traditional weekend date. But all this interference wasn't enough to save BN's majority. Two major factors led to the downfall of the ruling party. The first and most significant were the corruption allegations against incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak. As part of the so-called 1MDB scandal, the Wall Street Journal revealed, $700 million dollars had been channeled into Najib's personal bank account from a state-owned investment firm. Najib implausibly claimed that the money was donated to him personally from Saudi Arabia as a thanks for fighting ISIS. He fired the attorney general when he started investigating the scandal and removed the country's deputy prime minister from his position when he criticized Najib. Najib was able to hold on to his position within his party and in parliament, but he lost the support of many working-class Malays, long the core of BN's support. The scandal led to the second big development in this election, the return of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir led BN and governed Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 before retiring, but he returned to politics in 2017 after harshly criticizing Najib for the scandal and for refusing to step down. With opposition leader Anwar in prison, Mahathir became the leader of the Pakatan Harapan. This gave the opposition something it never could have developed on its own: a trusted, experience hand that all Malays would be comfortable voting for. Mahathir, despite being 92, was still an energetic campaigner and led Pakatan Harapan to 48 percent of the vote and 121 of 222 seats in parliament. Upon getting sworn in as prime minister, he became the oldest head of government in the world. BN, meanwhile, won just 79 seats and 34 percent of the vote, and Najib resigned as head of the party. He has since been barred from leaving the country as the investigation into him has resumed. (An Islamist alliance won 18 seats with the remaining 17 percent of the vote.) Read more