Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned on Monday in a move analysts said appeared to be an effort to form a new coalition and block the succession of leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim.
The shock move followed weekend political drama that saw an attempt by Anwar’s rivals within his own “Pact of Hope” coalition — which stormed to a historic election victory in 2018 — and opposition politicians to form a new government.
That coalition would reportedly have excluded Anwar, Mahathir’s presumptive successor and a former opposition icon who was jailed for years on questionable sodomy charges, blocking his ascent to the premiership.
Anwar and Mahathir — the world’s oldest leader, aged 94 — have a notoriously stormy relationship but joined forces to oust a corruption-plagued government at the 2018 polls.
Mahathir, who previously served as premier from 1981 to 2003, had made a pre-election pledge to hand power to Anwar but has repeatedly refused to fix a date.
The weekend push to form a new government appeared to have fizzled out by early Monday, but then Mahathir’s office made the surprise announcement that he had “sent a resignation letter as prime minister of Malaysia” to the king at 1:00 pm (0500 GMT).
