• Pakatan Harapan’s alliance gained the most seats,.
• But no party or coalition earned the 112 seats needed for a majority.
• Anwar Ibrahim was first set up for the role in the 1990s.

Anwar Ibrahim was first set up for the role in the 1990s before he was removed and jailed.

Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan alliance gained the most seats, but no party or coalition earned the 112 seats needed to form a government.

PH and the conservative Malay-Muslim Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition under former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin began negotiations to form a government, wooing smaller coalitions in Sabah and Sarawak as well as Barisan Nasional (BN), the alliance that dominated Malaysia for 60 years before its historic defeat in 2018.

King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah met with Anwar, Muhyiddin, and freshly elected lawmakers to discuss who should lead the new administration.

After a meeting of the royal households on Thursday, the monarch announced that Anwar will become prime minister.

King Sultan Abdullah will swear in the 75-year-old at 5pm.

“It’s been a long time coming for Anwar,” said BGA Malaysia’s Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani. “His reform efforts have been vindicated.”

Anwar Ibrahim began his political career as a student activist, organizing the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) in 1971 and conducting protests against rural poverty and other causes.

Then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad saw his activism and urged him to join UMNO, the major party in BN, which had dominated Malaysia since its independence in 1957.

Anwar ascended quickly to finance minister and deputy prime minister, establishing a reputation as a dynamic, ambitious reformer.

Mahathir turned on his handpicked successor as the Asian Financial Crisis intensified.

Anwar was charged of corruption and sodomy in September 1998.

Thousands protested in Kuala Lumpur, and Anwar was arrested.

His trial ranged from horrifying to ludicrous, with a black eye subsequently revealed to have been inflicted by the then-police chief while Anwar was in detention.

After being convicted, Anwar was released in 2004 and a second sodomy trial occurred as the 1998 reform movement gained steam.

Anwar was pardoned and freed from prison in 2018.

By then, he had teamed up with Mahathir under the PH banner to punish BN for the 1MDB scam.

Mahathir hesitated on his vow to hand up control, and the PH administration disintegrated amid infighting and pressure from Malay Muslim conservatives.

Such pressures could damage the next administration given the rise of PAS, Malaysia’s religiously conservative Muslim party, which won the most seats and is the main player in PN.

“What happens depends on the shape and form of this unity administration,” a Malaysian politics analyst told Al Jazeera. If PAS is included, it would try to drive the government in a more conservative route, but BN and the Borneo parties can still forward Anwar’s reform agenda.

Most Malaysians are ethnic Malay Muslims, but there are also large Chinese, Indian, and Indigenous minorities.

PH received 5.81 million votes, PN 4.67 million, and BN 3.43 million in Saturday’s election.

A constitutional change gave 18-year-olds the right to vote and automatic voter registration, increasing doubt over the outcome.

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