The Malaysian general election was held on the 9th of May, 2018, and Mahathir Mohammad – former Prime Minister and member of ruling party coalition Barisan Nasional – led the opposition party Pakatan Harapan to win the election. This victory has ended Barisan Nasional’s 60 years of government and 92 years old Mahathir has become the oldest Prime Minister in the world.

The overall voting rate during this election was 76% and the Mahathir-led Pakatan Harapan took the majority with 121 seats out of 222, whereas Barisan Nasional had only 79 seats, having lost 40% of the votes it had during the last election. Mahathir said that he had been notified of his victory by the Head-of-State and that he has been sworn in on  10th May, 2018 as Prime Minister.

Mahathir was once member of Barisan Nasional, becoming Prime Minister for twenty-two years since the 1980s and promoted former Prime Minister Najib Razak as his successor. He left the party after Najib’s involvement in a huge corruption scandal in 2016 to found the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) and established the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, together with Parti Tindakan Demokratik, Parti Amanah Negara and the Anwar-led Parti Keadilan Rakyat.