Malaysia: Mahathir Mohamad loses elections for the primary time in 53 years

On November 19, the previous Prime Minister of Malaysia, 97-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, misplaced his parliamentary seat within the Malaysian elections. Notably, Mohamad had earlier stated if he misplaced this election, he would take retirement from politics. The individuals of Malaysia forged their votes on Saturday, with a number of events contesting in intently fought elections.

Malaysia elections: Mahathir lose floor to ballot rivals

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As per reviews, the ex-PM did not defend his Langkawi parliamentary seat. The unofficial rely of the votes has indicated that he even misplaced the deposit as he failed to achieve at the least 20 p.c of the vote share. This is for the primary time in additional than fifty years that Mahathir has misplaced an election. He held the Guinness World Record for being the “world’s oldest prime minister” when he took over the place for the second time in 2018. At that point, he was simply two months away from turning 93.

Mahathir has served two occasions because the prime minister of Malaysia for a complete of 24 years. During these elections, he trailed the winner from National Alliance by at the least 11,000 votes. Notably, since 1969, Mahatir had not misplaced a single election. This would have been his tenth time period as a federal lawmaker if he had received. While talking to Nikkei Asia, he had vowed to retire from politics if he misplaced his seat.

On the opposite hand, Prime Minister aspirant Anwar Ibrahim received the election from the Tambun constituency in northern Perak state. As per the unofficial rely, he was main with 4,100 votes. His social gathering Hope Pact was main in 64 constituencies, whereas Muhyiddin-led National Alliance was main in 39 constituencies. The National Front was reported to be main on 19 seats.

Mahathir Mohamad had given asylum to Zakir Naik

In 2016, when India charged Islamic preacher and terror sympathiser Zakir Naik with cash laundering, he was in Malaysia. At that point, he determined to remain there. In 2019, Zakir Naik was granted everlasting residency in Malaysia regardless of uproar from the general public in opposition to him. Petitions have been launched for his deportation from Malaysia however nothing labored. Mahathir Mohamad was the Prime Minister of Malaysia when Zakir Naik was given everlasting residency.

In the identical 12 months, there was a bilateral assembly between Malaysia and India in Russia the place India sought the extradition of Naik. However, Malaysian authorities denied receiving any such request from their Indian counterparts.

In 2020, when Mahathir was eyeing to turn into Prime Minister for one more time period, he was quoted by WION News as saying that Zakir Naik wouldn’t be protected in India. He had stated that the Malaysian authorities favoured sending Naik to a rustic the place “he would feel safe”.

On May 13, 2020, the Indian authorities despatched a proper request to the Malaysian authorities in search of the extradition of Zakir Naik.

Notably, Naik is presently in Qatar and is anticipated to evangelise Islam on the sidelines of the FIFA World Cup that kicks off at this time.