Ninety-two-year-old Mahathir Mohamad was on Thursday sworn in as the world\u2019s oldest elected leader after a stunning election win that swept Malaysia\u2019s establishment from power after more than six decades.<\/p>\n
In a huge political upset, former strongman Mahathir\u2019s opposition alliance broke the grip on power of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had governed Malaysia uninterrupted since its birth as an independent country in 1957.<\/p>\n
It capped a dramatic political comeback for Mahathir, who previously ruled the country with an iron fist for 22 years and came out of retirement to take on Prime Minister Najib Razak after the leader became embroiled in a massive corruption scandal.<\/p>\n
In a ceremony at the national palace steeped in centuries-old Muslim Malay tradition, Mahathir was officially sworn in as prime minister by King Sultan Muhammad V.<\/p>\n
Mahathir, dressed in traditional Malay dress, took the oath of office in an elaborately decorated room, with political allies and senior government officials in attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI, Mahathir Mohamad, after being elected as prime minister, swear to carry out my task with all my ability, and that I will be loyal to Malaysia and preserve and defend the constitution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As he was sworn in, fireworks lit up in the night sky across Kuala Lumpur as people celebrated.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Mahathir and his wife Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali were driven into the palace past hundreds of well-wishers waving flags and chanting the national anthem.<\/p>\n
Mohamad Azlan Shah, a member of Mahathir\u2019s party in the crowd, said he was \u201cvery proud\u201d.<\/p>\n
One of the most remarkable aspects of Mahathir\u2019s comeback has been his reconciliation with jailed opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, his former nemesis. Their relationship has loomed large over the Malaysian political landscape for decades.<\/p>\n
Anwar was Mahathir\u2019s heir-apparent until the premier sacked him in 1998 over political differences, and he was subsequently jailed on charges of sodomy and abuse of power.<\/p>\n
Anwar was jailed again during Najib\u2019s rule but is due out in June and Mahathir has pledged to help him get a royal pardon, allowing him to run for political office again and potentially become prime minister.<\/p>\n
As it became clear that BN was facing a historic wipeout, Najib disappeared for hours and only surfaced Thursday morning to tell a press conference that he accepted the people\u2019s will, although he stopped short of conceding defeat. His comments were slammed by one analyst as \u201cunstatesmanlike\u201d.<\/p>\n
The opposition\u2019s shock victory triggered euphoria and a sense of relief that a leader who was accused of massive graft and fanning racial tensions in the multi-ethnic country was finally on his way out.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Mahathir) has come back to help us regain the country. Now we want to see if he will fulfil… his promises.\u201d The initial delight at the opposition victory will likely give way to some apprehension. Mahathir was also accused of being an authoritarian leader, and political opponents were thrown in jail during his time in office.<\/p>\n
The opposition faced an uphill battle at the election due to what critics said were no-holds-barred attempts by Najib to hang on to power.<\/p>\n
His government was accused of gerrymandering while activists said he hurled cash and gifts at voters and there was a litany of problems with the electoral roll, including dead people appearing on the list.<\/p>\n
In the event, voters turned out in droves across the country in a determined bid to oust Najib.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ninety-two-year-old Mahathir Mohamad was on Thursday sworn in as the world\u2019s oldest elected leader after a stunning election win that swept Malaysia\u2019s establishment from power after more than six decades. In a huge political upset, former strongman Mahathir\u2019s opposition alliance broke the grip on power of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had governed Malaysia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30788,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30786\/revisions\/30788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}