Tide turns against PM who has been mired in scandal as support surges for country’s former leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, is facing a fight for his political survival when the country goes to the polls this week, after his strong lead over rival Dr Mahathir Mohamad narrowed sharply.
Najib, who has been in power since 2009, was initially thought to be guaranteed an easy win in Wednesday’s elections. But in the past few weeks the tide has turned against him, even in the rural Malay heartlands that have long been strongholds for the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN).
Many are now predicting that the government will once again lose the popular vote, though thanks to recent gerrymandering and the redrawing of electoral boundaries it will still be able to hold on to power.
Figures within Umno, Najib’s party in the ruling coalition, say that if Najib wins fewer than 130 seats out of a total of 222 (BN currently holds 133), then he is likely to face a post-election leadership challenge.
Most of the election narrative has been controlled by the opposition, led by former prime minister Mahathir, who led the country between 1981 and 2003, and at 92 years old has returned to topple Najib, his former protege. Mahathir was once head of Umno himself but has switched sides in this election to run against Najib.
Najib has also faced growing criticism from within his own party. Last week Umno sacked two senior leaders and suspended another – all long-time loyalists of Mahathir – for speaking against Najib and attending opposition events.
Much of the criticism of Najib has been focused on his role in the huge 1MDB scandal, where $2.6bn from a government fund he was overseeing was embezzled and spent around the worldand $681m of it was alleged to have ended up in his personal bank account.
