Mahathir's opposition wins majority in Malaysian parliament

Official results from Malaysia's national election show the opposition alliance led by the country's former veteran ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front.

The Election Commission said the opposition has so far won 112 seats and the National Front has 76 seats.

The opposition is also sweeping state elections, including Johor state where the dominant Malay party in the National Front was founded.

Malaysian voters have been angered by a corruption scandal involving Prime Minister Najib Razak and new taxes.

Mahathir is 92 and leads an alliance of opposition parties.

TRT World's Natalie Poyhonen has more from Kuala Lumpur.

Support for ruling alliance decreased 

Early results showed that National Front had lost seats in key states that have traditionally been its strongholds, and was voted out of power for the first time in the country's six decades of independence from Britain.

National Front faced a far greater challenge in this election than ever before amid public anger over the cost of living and a multi-billion-dollar scandal that has dogged Najib since 2015.

An election-eve opinion poll had suggested that support for National Front was slipping and Mahathir's alliance would land the most votes in peninsular Malaysia, home to 80 percent of the population in this Southeast Asian nation.

TRT World's Natalie Poyhonen has more from Kuala Lumpur.

Najib dogged by scandal 

Malaysia's majority ethnic-Malay Muslims have tended to support National Front for affirmative-action policies that give them government contracts, cheap housing and guaranteed university admissions.

Mahathir's opposition alliance, which counted on urban votes and support from the minority ethnic-Chinese and Indian communities, hoped that with the former leader as its standard bearer it would draw in Malay voters traditionally loyal to National Front.

Najib, 64, has been buffeted by the scandal over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund from which billions of dollars were allegedly syphoned off.

US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions has described the scandal at the fund set up by Najib as the worst form of kleptocracy. The US Department of Justice has filed several lawsuits to seize more than $1.7 billion in assets believed to have been stolen from 1MDB.

Najib, who was chairman of 1MDB's advisory board, has denied any wrongdoing and has been cleared of any offence by Malaysia's attorney general.