Mahathir Mohamad has resigned. Malaysia’s next leader is ... Mahathir?
- The 94-year-old leader may have tendered his resignation to Malaysia’s king, or agong, but he has subsequently been appointed interim prime minister
- Not only that, but he could be reappointed either by the agong or through a vote of confidence by parliament
However, Mahathir – who was both the nation’s fourth prime minister (between 1981 and 2003) and its seventh (from 2018 until Monday) – has a chance to be reappointed prime minister either by the agong, or through a vote of confidence from parliament, which resumes on March 9.
“If Mahathir goes on as normal and then gets a vote of confidence in parliament, then this solves the issue. Any member of parliament can table the motion, including the government itself through an acting minister,” said Shad, pointing out that since the leader’s shocking resignation after an attempted political “coup d’etat”, many Malaysian political parties had thrown their support behind Mahathir.
Drawing analogies from other nations with a similar common law system, including Britain, Shad said interim leaders were normally appointed for a few weeks but there had been cases of these leaders staying in place for up to half a year.