Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim appointed pm, to take over

The country s palace said on Thursday that Anwar Ibrahim has been appointed prime minister and will be sworn in by the king at 5 pm local time.

A general election on Saturday ended in a hung parliament with neither of the two main alliances, one of which is led by Anwar and the other ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin, having to secure enough seats in parliament to form a government.

Anwar s appointment ends a three-decade long journey from the heir apparent to a prisoner convicted of sodomy to a longtime opposition leader.

The 75-year-old has been denied the premiership despite getting within striking distance a number of times over the years: he was the deputy prime minister in the 1990s and the official prime minister in 2018.

He spent almost a decade in jail for sodomy and corruption in what he says were politically motivated charges aimed at ending his career.

With 82 parliamentary seats Anwar s Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope, came out on top in Saturday's election but was short of the 112 seats needed for a majority. The former prime minister Muhyiddin's Malay-centric Perikatan Nasional, or National Alliance, won 73 seats.

The balance of power was held by the alliance led by the United Malays National Organization, which has 30 seats.

Umno spokesman-general Ahmad Maslan said on Thursday that the party's highest-decision making body had decided to support a unity government that is not led by Muhyiddin's camp and that the party would accept any unity government or any other form of government decided by the king.

Anwar was able to secure a majority with the support of all 30 lawmakers in the Umno alliance.

Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah met with royal families from nine states on Thursday to consult on the deadlock. Malaysia s hereditary state rulers, who take turns as the country's king every five years under a unique rotation system, are highly regarded by the country s Malay majority as guardians of Islam and Malay tradition.

Anwar s reformist alliance won the 2018 elections that led to the first regime change since Malaysia s independence from Britain in 1957. The government collapsed after Muhyiddin defected and joined Umno to form a new government. Muhyiddin's government was beset by internal rivalries and he resigned after 17 months. The king then picked Umno leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the prime minister.