Mahathir Mohamad became the President of Malaysia after defeating his one time protege and incumbent prime minister, Najib Razak.
Razak’s defeat is belived to be as a result of a corruption scandal that rocked his second term in office as prime minister.
94 year old Robert Mugabe who was ousted last year in a de-facto coup was the oldest elected head of state in the world.
Mahathir is a veteran in Malaysian politics, who came out of retirement and defected to the opposition, pledging to make Razak accountable for his misappropriation.
His success at poll is historic having ousted the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957.
The coalition of opposition parties led by Mahathir Mohamad won 121 seats, including those of a small allied party in Sabah State (Borneo), out of 222 to be filled in Parliament, the absolute majority to form a government.
Mahathir was prime minister, at the head of the BN coalition, for 22 years, from 1981 until he stepped down in 2003.
Mahathir also took advantage of the inflated living costs affecting the rural heartlands of the Muslim Malays, who make up some 60 percent of the multi-ethnic country’s population.
He succeeded in luring away Malays from Najib, chipping away at a support base that his government had nurtured with an official affirmative action programme and racially-charged rhetoric.
Mahathir was sworn in yesterday; he promised to ‘restore the rule of law’ in Malaysia.
Are Nigerians expecting similar result in their upcoming election or are the youths bent on coming on stage as proposed? Best of luck to TEAM NIGERIA……..
