EILEEN NG | AP ARABNEWS
Monday 6 May 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia’s long-governing coalition won national elections Sunday to extend its 56 years of unbroken rule, fending off the strongest opposition it has ever faced but exposing vulnerabilities in the process.
The Election Commission reported that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s National Front coalition captured 127 of Malaysia’s 222 parliamentary seats to win a majority Sunday. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s three-party alliance seized 77 seats, and other races were too close to call.
It was the National Front’s 13th consecutive victory in general elections since independence from Britain in 1957. It faced its most unified challenge ever from an opposition that hoped to capitalize on allegations of arrogance, abuse of public funds and racial discrimination against the government.
Najib urged all Malaysians to accept his coalition’s victory. “We have to show to the world that we are a mature democracy,” he said.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak (C) and his other party leaders celebrate after winning the elections at his party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur early Monday. (Reuters)
“Despite the extent of the swing against us, (the National Front) did not fall,” he said in a nationally televised news conference.