International Desk: Malaysia’s senior leader and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad lost the election for the first time in his 53-year political career. Many see this as the end of his long political career. News Reuters.
Voting for Malaysia’s general election took place on Saturday (November 19). 97-year-old Mahathir lost from his own seat.
Reuters reports that Mahathir lost to a rival candidate for the first time since 1969. The leader, who has ruled Malaysia for more than two decades, is the fourth of five candidates in his parliamentary seat.
Earlier, Mahathir said in an interview that he will withdraw from politics if he loses the election.
Aljazeera’s journalist Florence Louis said from Kuala Lumpur, the surprising fact is that Mahathir didn’t just lose, he lost terribly. Even his bail was confiscated. The cast did not receive even one-eighth of the votes cast. His party could not win a single seat.
Incidentally, Mahathir Mohamad was the Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003. He came back to power in 2018 amid allegations of widespread corruption in the ruling party.
