Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s two-time prime minister, announced that he would be defending his Langkawi seat in the upcoming 15th general election which is slated to be held in November.
However, Mahathir said he will not be his party’s prime ministerial candidate.
“Pejuang has decided that the Langkawi seat will be contested by Mahathir but he isn’t the prime minister candidate,” Mahathir said humorously at a press conference at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya today.
Mahathir was first elected as premier from July 1981 to October 2003 and later from May 2018 to March 2020 for a cumulative total of 24 years, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
A former Umno leader, Mahathir led Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) coalition victory in the last general election in 2018 against Umno, which had ruled the nation for 60 years at the time.
However, in 2020, the PH government crumbled after several of its MPs withdrew their support for Mahathir’s administration, in what many described as a political coup.
Later on, Mahathir had a falling out with Pakatan Harapan leaders and went on to establish two political parties, the first ‘Pejuang’ and the most recent one ‘Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA)’ coalition.
However, Mahathir pointed out today that the government’s registry of societies had not yet given its approval to GTA’s registration application.
“GTA will not be able to contest as GTA. Because of this, we decided today we will be contesting as Pejuang, under the party’s symbol and banner,” he said, adding that those who agreed to stand as GTA candidates will also use the Pejuang logo.
Two governments have collapsed since the downfall of PH, with Ismail Sabri Yaakob becoming Malaysia’s third prime minister in two years in August last year through negotiations instead of an election.
Yesterday, Ismail Sabri announced the dissolution of parliament to make way for the country’s 15th General Election (GE15).
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