Unofficial results from Malaysia's general election Wednesday show the opposition alliance led by former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad is making strong gains at the expense of the ruling coalition. In the federal election, Prime Minister Najib Razak's National Front is narrowly ahead of the opposition, which campaigned on a platform of saving Malaysia from a corrupt elite after a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal at a state investment fund set up by Najib. Under Najib, the ruling coalition's prestige has been eroded by the 1MDB corruption scandal and an unpopular sales tax that hit poor rural Malays particularly hard. Faced with a reinvigorated opposition, the government has used the levers of power to further tilt the playing field in its favor, critics and analysts say. Redrawn electoral boundaries were rushed through parliament last month, pushing likely opposition voters into seats that already support the opposition and dividing constituencies along racial lines.

Source: ABC News May 09, 2018 00:22 UTC