Malaysian oppn picks Mahathir to fight Najib

Bloomberg

Malaysia’s opposition named Mahathir Mohamad, 92, as candidate for prime minister in an election that must be held by August.
Once Malaysia’s longest serving premier, Mahathir will battle against his own hand-picked heir, Prime Minister Najib Razak, 64. The coalition known as Pakatan Harapan, or Pact of Hope, said at its convention on Sunday that Mahathir would remain prime minister until jailed de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, 70, is eligible to take over.
The opposition has struggled to make gains since dealing Najib his biggest-ever blow in 2013, when it won the popular vote and caused the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition to take home its lowest number of parliamentary seats. A December survey by Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research showed that Najib’s coalition may regain its two-thirds majority in parliament, the Malaysian Insight reported. “Mahathir will be a tough opponent to Najib,” said Ibrahim Suffian, program director at Merdeka Centre. “So while the survey presently indicates the situation as being uphill for Pakatan, we still have perhaps two to three months to the election, which is at least half a lifetime in politics.” Having ruled as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, Mahathir has been out of office for 15 years. While he was instrumental in removing Najib’s predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from power in 2009, his influence has waned over the years and it’s unclear how much voter support he can command.