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Mahathir Mohamad has support to return as Malaysia’s PM – and without a deal with Anwar Ibrahim
- The Malaysian leader resigned as prime minister this week, but looks likely to return with a new-look coalition after the crumbling of Pakatan Harapan
- Sources say that means he no longer needs to honour a pre-election promise to handover power to his former rival Anwar Ibrahim
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Malaysia’s political crisis following the resignation of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad looks set to end with a fizzle rather than a bang after days of intrigue that have involved emergency meetings, public shows of support and the intervention of the nation’s monarch.
It now seems almost certain that Mahathir, 94, will return as prime minister despite the crumbling of the Pakatan Harapan coalition that he led to victory in the May 2018 general election.
Mahathir’s shock resignation on Monday followed an attempted coup by sections of his supporters hoping to form a back-door government. The coup leaders had wanted to see Mahathir finish a full five-year term in office rather than fulfil a Pakatan Harapan pre-election promise that he would hand over power mid-way to Anwar Ibrahim.
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After his resignation, talk had been rife that a non-partisan government – comprising the component parties of the now-suspended Pakatan Harapan as well as the right-wing nationalist Malay opposition parties – would be formed.
But on Tuesday the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) ruled this out after meetings with both Mahathir and the king, who has the power to dissolve parliament if the prime minister suggests it.
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Throughout the day all the key players had scrambled to put together a parliamentary majority – 112 seats and above – as under the Malaysian constitution the king appoints a prime minister he believes can command the majority of the house.
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