No party will win over 50% of the vote in next GE: Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR • No one party would be able to command more than a 50 per cent majority in the next Malaysian general election expected to be called soon, said former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday.

He said this is because many parties are expected to contest and each wants to have a prime minister from its own party.

"I am confident that this time there is no party which can get more than 50 per cent" of the 222 Parliament seats, he said.

Malaysia's general election is not due until September next year, but there is speculation it could be held in the next three months. Malaysia has had an unprecedented three prime ministers since the May 2018 national polls due to political infighting, and the fractured political landscape is expected to continue into the next general election.

Separately, Tun Dr Mahathir denied he had any influence in the case of former premier Najib Razak, who is serving a 12-year sentence for graft linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.

Dr Mahathir noted that three courts found Najib guilty. "There were three courts - namely the High Court, the Appeal Court and the Federal Court. There were nine judges who all had the same opinion," he said.

He was responding to Najib's supporters, who claimed possible influence in the judgment meted out by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat last Tuesday, as she was appointed by Dr Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan government in 2018.

High Court judge Nazlan Mohd Ghazali found Najib guilty of receiving RM42 million (S$13 million) of public funds in his personal bank account in July 2020. A three-judge appeal court bench upheld the decision in December last year, and a five-member Federal Court panel led by the Chief Justice affirmed the judgment last week.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK