KUALA LUMPUR: Anwar Ibrahim on Saturday scored a landslide win in a by-election, clearing the way for the formerly jailed politician to one day become Malaysia’s eighth prime minister.
Anwar, 71, leader of the largest party in the ruling coalition, won 71% of the votes against six other candidates for a parliament seat to represent the coastal town of Port Dickson, the Election Commission announced. Polling ended at 5pm local time with voter turnout at 58%.
While he is expected to replace Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister in a year or two, Anwar has tempered expectations of taking an immediate role in the cabinet.
He said would first focus on developing his constituency as a tourism destination while working on reforms in the legislative body, giving Mahathir space to run the government. Mahathir has vouched for this, and appeared by Anwar’s side at a rally on Monday.
The Pakatan Harapan coalition engineered the by-election to realise its succession plan for Anwar. The group chose Mahathir as their interim prime minister candidate and Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the deputy for the election in May, as Anwar was ineligible to contest due to a sodomy conviction that has been widely criticised as political.
His full pardon and release were granted within a week of the coalition’s victory. In August, he became the president of People’s Justice Party, the largest in the alliance, without contest.