Malaysia GE15: Mahathir loses combat for Langkawi seat

Former Malaysia prime minister and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) coalition candidate Mahathir Mohamad has did not defend his Langkawi seat, official election outcomes introduced on Sunday (Nov 20) confirmed.

The 97-year-old was defeated by Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah, who clinched 13,518 out of 25,463 votes.

Election Fee information confirmed that Dr Mahathir secured 4,566 votes and has misplaced his deposit. He completed fourth in a five-cornered combat.

That is Dr Mahathir’s first electoral defeat in 53 years. 

Within the final common election, Dr Mahathir gained the Langkawi seat on the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) ticket by defeating Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Nawawi Ahmad and Zubir Ahmad of PAS with an 8,893-vote majority.

Launched in August, the GTA coalition contains 4 political events – the Nationwide Indian Muslim Alliance Social gathering (Iman), Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra), Parti Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia (Berjasa) and Pejuang, the social gathering led by Dr Mahathir. It additionally consists of NGOs, academicians and people.

Dr Mahathir held the world file for the oldest prime minister.

He’s additionally Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, having held the submit for 22 years till 2003. He returned as premier after main Pakatan Harapan (PH) to a historic win in 2018, defeating UMNO which he as soon as led. The PH authorities collapsed in 2020 as a consequence of infighting.

Throughout his political profession, he was additionally performing schooling minister in 2020 and had two stints as Malaysia’s finance minister.

Final month, he reportedly stated that he was open to changing into prime minister for the third time if there have been sturdy requires him to take action.

Political analyst James Chin stated that though Dr Mahathir “was broadly revered for what he did in his first time period as prime minister … lots of people are in settlement that he made an enormous mistake in coming again the second time period”.

He stated: “Due to the character of his loss, together with dropping his deposit, I believe the historical past or his legacy will probably be very totally different now in comparison with if he had not come again because the prime minister a second time spherical.”

“Dropping a deposit in Malaysia is the last word signal that you have been rejected by the folks,” Prof Chin added.