Malaysia's Mahathir loses bid to return as PM

Malaysia's king on Saturday appointed seasoned politician Muhyiddin Yassin as the country's new leader, trumping Mahathir Mohamad's bid to return to power after a week of political turmoil that followed his resignation as prime minister.

The appointment of Muhyiddin, who heads Mahathir's Bersatu party, will ironically bring back to power the United Malays National Organization, which was ousted by Mahathir's ruling alliance in a historic vote in May 2018.

The latest move also stoked fears of rising Islamisation with the inclusion of a fundamentalist Islamic party.

Bersatu pulled out of the alliance this week, leading to the government's collapse.

Mahathir quit to object to Bersatu's plan to work with UMNO, and several UMNO leaders - including disgraced ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak - are on trial on corruption charges.

Mahathir, 94, had struck a deal early Saturday to work with his former ruling alliance led by rival and Alliance of Hope leader Anwar Ibrahim to thwart Muhyiddin's plan and appeared to be on the verge of a victory as more lawmakers rejoined his camp.

But the palace announced later in the day that King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah believed that Muhyiddin had the support of a majority of lawmakers.

The king decreed that “it was the best decision for all" and called for an end to the political turmoil, the palace statement said.

Muhyiddin, 72, is a longtime politician who was sacked by Najib as deputy prime minister in 2015 after he criticized Najib’s handling of a massive corruption scandal at the 1MDB state investment fund.

He helped Mahathir in 2016 form Bersatu, which later teamed up with Anwar's Alliance of Hope with a pact that Mahathir would eventually hand over power to Anwar.

"For Anwar, clearly he's now lost the taste of power in terms of potentially being prime minister now three times," said Bridge Welsh, a political analyst at University of Nottingham in Malaysia, as the stunning turn of events marked the end of the Alliance of Hope.

However, Welsh added, "Mahatir is still fighting. And I think that Mahatir is definitely a player in the political process ahead. But right now, he's no longer Prime Minister or Interim Prime Minister. If anything, he's now the leader of the opposition."

Muhyiddin will be sworn in on Sunday.