MALAYSIA Kuala Lumpur decides early elections

The Prime Minister yesterday dissolved Parliament. The Umno, which governed with a narrow majority, tries to capitalize on the favorable moment. The main problem of the executive will be the management of the economic crisis. The increase in prices has caused great uncertainty.

Kuala Lumpur () – Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakub announced yesterday the dissolution of Parliament and the start of procedures to hold early elections, which had already been taken for granted on October 9, when King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ Ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah agreed to the government’s request, although he expressed his discontent with recent political developments.

The country is thus heading towards an electoral campaign and new elections (for the third time since 2018) to be held in December -instead of September 2023- in a situation that, as the sovereign has also underlined, will be affected not only by political climate and economic difficulties, but because from mid-November the monsoon season also begins.

On September 7, the government had already rushed to present the budget of 80,060 million dollars – one of the largest that has been presented since independence – which was approved in a situation of great uncertainty, even with the prospect of a slowdown in growth. economic.

On September 30, the supreme council of the UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), the main party with a narrow majority, had already decided that it wanted to advance the elections to the end of the year. Especially determined is the position of the party’s president, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who ruled for sixty years after the country’s independence but lost the elections in May 2018. He returned to government when the king chose Yaakub as prime minister on August 20. 2021. Hamidi must answer for 47 charges of corruption, money laundering and criminal breach of trust. At the moment he is trying to consolidate what could be a favorable moment, despite the fact that he has just finished the case on the 1Mdb fund scandal, which sentenced former Prime Minister Najib Razak to 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering. money. His fate, however, could change with the elections, which would open the possibility of a royal pardon requested by various parties.

Beyond political interests, the engine of the campaign will be above all economic issues (this year growth is expected between 6.5 and 7% but it will drop at least two points in 2023), inflation and the increase in prices, endemic corruption and the complicated relationship between ethnic groups and religions. The argument of nationalism used against minorities and a policy of handouts in favor of the Muslim majority remain decisive elements of the UMNO’s policy.