Mahathir Mohamad: Latest News

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian opposition lawmakers led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad submitted a petition to the country’s king on Tuesday seeking an end to a coronavirus emergency so Parliament can resume.

(Reuters) – Malaysia's king appointed long-time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister on Thursday and he will be sworn in at 5 p.m., ending five days of unprecedented post-election crisis after inconclusive polls.Anwar's appointment caps a three-decade-long political journey from a protege of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad to a prisoner convicted of sodomy to opposition leader and, finally, prime minister.A general election on Saturday ended in an unprecedented hung parliament with neither of the two main alliances, one led by Anwar and the other by ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin, immediately able to secure enough seats in parliament to form a government.The 75-year-old Anwar has time and again been denied the premiership despite getting within striking distance over the years: he was deputy prime minister in the 1990s and the official prime minister-in-waiting in 2018.In between, he spent nearly a decade in jail for sodomy and corruption in what he says were politically motivated charges aimed at ending his career.The uncertainty over the election threatened to prolong political instability in the Southeast Asian country, which has had three prime ministers in as many years, and risks delaying policy decisions needed to foster economic recovery.Anwar leads a multi-ethnic coalition of parties with progressive leanings while Muhyiddin's alliance reflects more conservative, ethnic Malay, Muslim views.Anwar's coalition, known as Pakatan Harapan, won the most seats in Saturday's vote with 82, while Muhyiddin's Perikatan Nasional bloc won 73.

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian prosecutors have dropped money laundering charges against “The Wolf of Wall Street” film producer and stepson of ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak in a move slammed by Human Rights Watch on Friday as a “triumph for impunity and corruption."