TIMESASIANews.com | Malaysia – Former Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Mahathir Mohammad (97) and coalition candidate the Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) failed to defend his parliamentary seat in Langkawi, based on the official election results announced on Sunday (Nov, 20).
The man with a million political experience in Negeri Sembilan lost badly to Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah from Perikatan Nasional (PN), who won 13,518 out of 25,463 votes.
Data from the election committee in the country shows that Mahathir got 4,566 votes and lost his deposit. He placed fourth in the electoral.
Launching Channel News Asia, Sunday (Nov, 20), this was Mahathir’s first electoral defeat in 53 years.
In the last general election, Mahathir managed to win his seat in Langkawi on the People’s Justice Party (PKR) by beating Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates Datuk Nawawi Ahmad and Zubir Ahmad from PAS with a majority of 8,893 votes.
Launched last August, the GTA coalition consists of four political parties, namely the National Indian Muslim Alliance Party (Iman), the Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia Party (Putra), the Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia Party (Berjasa) and Pejuang, the party led by Mahathir. This also includes NGOs, academics and individuals.
Mahathir still holds the world record for being the oldest prime minister. Not only that, he is also the longest serving prime minister in Malaysia, having served for 22 years until 2003.
After that, he returned to serving as prime minister after leading Pakatan Harapan (PH) to a historic victory in 2018. At that time, he defeated UMNO, which he had also led.
During his political career, Mahathir also served as education minister in 2020 and twice served as Malaysia’s Minister of Finance.
Last month, he said he was open to becoming a third prime minister if there were strong calls for him to do so.
“Maybe some of the voters are those who think (Mahathir) really should rest and maybe it is a vote of sympathy for him to retire,” said political analyst Serina Abdul Rahman about Mahathir’s defeat in Langkawi, as published by CNN on Sunday (Nov, 20). _red_
