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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad has resigned from his designation as Prime Minister.
According to Malaysian news, the 94-year-old outgoing premier sent his resignation letter to the king at 1:45 pm (10:45 am Pakistan time).
Mahathir Mohamad announced the news of his resignation on 19th February but he planned to step down as premier after Malaysia hosts November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit which will be held in November this year.
It is not clear who will be the next prime minister or if new elections will be called. Mohamad had also resigned as chairman of his political party Bersatu. The party had been part of the ruling opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan, which Mahathir had joined in 2018 together with Anwar Ibrahim.
It started when on Sunday, Anwar accused Mahathir and his party of being “traitors”, saying they had plans to form a new government, presumably without him. But on Monday, Mahathir submitted his resignation.
Anwar and Mahathir united ahead of the 2018 election to drive out the UMNO-dominated Barisan Nasional coalition.
But tensions had been growing between the two in their Alliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan, or PH) coalition, as Mahathir resisted setting a specific timetable for keeping his promise to hand power to Anwar.
Mahathir Mohammed came into power in 2018, after which he signed an agreement with Anwar Ibrahim. Whatever the ruling coalition might decide, I would resign in November, he added.
Mahathir bin Mohamad, a Malaysian politician who currently serves as the prime minister of Malaysia. He was appointed prime minister in 1981, retired in 2003, and returned to the office in 2018.
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