Early results show slight advantage for ruling coalition in Malaysian general election

But the race has been fiercely contested, and the opposition alliance has gained ground in recent weeks as Mahathir, who ruled with an iron fist for 22 years, chipped away at the government’s key support base, the Muslim Malay majority.

The U.S. Justice Department says $4.5 billion was looted from 1MBD, the investment fund, by associates of Najib between 2009 and 2014, including $700 million that landed in Najib’s bank account.

The ruling coalition is “left far behind and the likelihood is that they will not be forming the government”, he said. “This is not fake news”.

Business is comfortable with a National Front victory because they’re uncertain about what policies the opposition would introduce, but that victory would come at a longer-term cost, he said, “weakening institutions and leaving the country with more entrenched identity politics”.

Unlike the Philippines which elects its president and Congress representatives separately, Malaysia practices a system of parliamentary democracy whereby at the national level the voters cast their ballots only to elect members of parliament (MPs, akin to representatives) from single constituencies, and the prime minister, who is the chief executive, is the MP who commands the confidence of the majority in Parliament. At over 90 years old, Mahathir made a decision to form his own party, and together with a splinter party from PAS, joined DAP and PKR to form a new PH opposition alliance. The election commission said final results could be unveiled on Wednesday night.

The opposition has complained that a midweek vote might discourage a high turnout.

As of writing, traffic looks pretty clear at both land checkpoints, so there shouldn’t be any problems for Malaysian voters remaining here to scoot on over to the other side.

Joining forces with Mahathir has been a gamble for the opposition as he is a divisive figure.

He says “the process is not efficient enough”, adding, “it’s not the voters’ fault”. The 13th election (GE13) in 2013 saw Najib’s administration lose the traditional popular vote.

Election officials say turnout has hit 55 percent by 1 p.m.in Malaysia’s general election.

“We just want to be sure”, the commission’s chairman Hashim Abdullah said at a press conference early on Thursday (May 10).

Before polls closed, Mahathir said he was anxious voters may not get the chance to cast their ballots.

Polling booths opened at 8 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The rest of the electors are absentee voters, postal voters and early voters.

The internet regulator blamed the attacks on “bots” (automated programmes) and said it would investigate. A 92-year-old ex-premier shunning retirement to fight the incumbent prime minister (PM) whom he once mentored; patching up with an arch-nemesis he jailed; the incumbent tarnished, with his name caught in the middle of a corruption scandal; rising nationalism and political Islam; pre-existing undercurrents of racial tension; and a country’s aspiration to become developed and modern-all make for a heady political battle.

“Bact on facts, Insyaallah, I believe that the people will vote for BN”, he told the media after casting his vote at Sekolah Sains Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah here today. “People are for people”.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak offers special prayers a day before the 14th general election at a mosque in Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia, on Tuesday.

Najib showed reporters a finger stained in purple ink after voting and then greeted supporters.

The opposition bloc has highlighted bread-and-butter issues while also keeping the spotlight on a money-laundering scandal involving state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd, which has implicated Mr Najib.

“I urge you all to join the people’s movement to demand for change”, Anwar said in a statement from a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, where he is recovering from a shoulder operation.