Anwar Ibrahim Appointed New Malaysia Prime Minister

Malaysia’s king appointed long-time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister on Thursday, ending five days of unprecedented post-election crisis after inconclusive polls.

Anwar’s appointment caps a three-decade long political journey from a protege of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad to protest leader, to a prisoner convicted of sodomy, to opposition leader and, finally, prime minister.

Markets surged upon the end of the political deadlock. The ringgit currency posted its best day in two weeks and equities rose 3% on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange.

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

The 75-year-old Anwar has time and again been denied the premiership despite getting within striking distance over the years: he was deputy prime minister in the 1990s and the official prime minister-in-waiting in 2018.

In between, he spent nearly a decade in jail for sodomy and corruption in what he says were politically motivated charges aimed at ending his career.

The uncertainty over the election threatened to prolong political instability in the Southeast Asian country, which has had three prime ministers in as many years, and risks delaying policy decisions needed to foster economic recovery.

Anwar leads a multi-ethnic coalition of parties with progressive leanings while Muhyiddin’s alliance reflects more conservative, ethnic Malay, Muslim views.

His supporters expressed hope that Anwar’s government would head off a return to historic tension between the ethnic Malay, Muslim majority and ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

(CNN)