AT POLITICAL rallies the hungry have been enjoying exotic fare—guavas, macaroons, avocado juice—as they gather on a sticky night in Johor, a southern state that is a battleground between the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH). They all want to hear Mahathir Mohamad. “I follow him everywhere!” chirps a local cleaner. “Whatever he does, whatever he says, we support him,” gushes a group of students. Dr Mahathir, a former prime minister who is 92, now leads PH, although he once ran Malaysia on behalf of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which has been in power for more than six decades and is the BN coalition’s main party. Whether he can persuade voters to switch allegiance on polling day, May 9th, hangs in the balance.
The election is for the 222-seat parliament and for 12 of the 13 states’ assemblies. Two-thirds of seats are reckoned to be tight contests, up from about half in the previous election in 2013. The...Continue reading
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