ISLAMABAD – Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad stepped down onMonday following an internal coup to form a new ruling coalition.
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The prime minister’s office said in a statement that the 94-year-old leadertendered his resignation to the country’s monarch at 1 p.m. local time.
Mahathir’s nearly two-year-old ruling coalition has been embroiled in asuccession battle over the past few weeks, bickering over when he will handover power to his designated successor, Anwar Ibrahim.
Several members of the ruling coalition Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance ofHope, met on Sunday along with opposition parties to form a force that willdeny Anwar the opportunity.
Meanwhile 11 MPs from Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat(PKR) have also quit the party to form an independent bloc. The departinglawmakers, a rival faction to Mr Anwar, are led by PKR’s deputy presidentAzmin Ali, who is Economic Affairs Minister and Minister of Housing andLocal Government Zuraida Kamaruddin.
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The exit of these lawmakers has left PH short of simple majority inParliament, meaning the current government has effectively fallen.
The resignation move is likely to have been tactical, with a view toundoing the PH transition agreement under which Mr Anwar was supposed toreplace the 94-year-old Dr Mahathir before the next election due in 2023.
The tussle between old rivals Mahathir, 94, and Anwar, 72, is the latestchapter in a long-running political saga between two of the country’s mostprominent political figures.
