Malaysia’s veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been sworn in as the country’s new prime minister, after several days of post-election deadlock. The new leader was appointed by King Sultan Abdullah, after elections over the weekend resulted in an unprecedented hung parliament.
Neither Mr Anwar nor ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin had won the simple majority needed to form a government. It is not immediately clear who Mr Anwar will go into coalition with.
“After taking into the consideration the views of Their Royal Highnesses the Malay Rulers, His Majesty has given consent to appoint Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia,” said a statement released by the palace earlier on Thursday.
The new PM was sworn in by the king in the late afternoon.
Mr Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) party, which won the biggest share of seats in Saturday’s election, does not have enough seats on its own to form a government.
It took five days of intense negotiations to reach an agreement on a new government, during which time various combinations of parties and forms of alliances were discussed, and then rejected.
Credit: bbc.com
