On Thursday, the king of Malaysia picked long-time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister. He will be sworn in at 5:00 p.m. (0900 GMT), bringing an end to five days of unprecedented post-election crisis following inconclusive elections.
Anwar's ascension culminates a three-decade-long political journey from protégé of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad to anti-government protest leader to prisoner convicted of sodomy to opposition leader to prime minister.
Saturday's general election resulted in a historic hung parliament, with neither of the two major alliances, one led by Anwar and the other by ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin, able to instantly obtain enough members to form a government.
The 75-year-old Anwar has been denied the leadership despite coming close on several occasions: he was deputy prime minister in the 1990s and official prime minister-in-waiting in 2018.
In between, he spent nearly a decade in jail on allegations of sodomy and corruption, which he claims were politically motivated to ruin his career.
The uncertainty surrounding the election threatens to prolong political instability in the Southeast Asian nation, which has had three prime ministers in as many years, and risks postponing economic recovery-promoting policy choices.
Anwar heads a coalition of progressive, multiethnic parties, whilst Muhyiddin's alliance supports more conservative, ethnic Malay, Muslim beliefs.
His supporters hoped that Anwar's administration would prevent a resurgence of tensions between the Malay, Muslim majority and the Chinese and Indian minority.
Anwar's alliance, known as Pakatan Harapan, gained 82 seats more than Muhyyiddin's Perikatan Nasional bloc, which won 73. A simple majority of 112 votes was required to create a government.
The Barisan coalition, which had controlled politics since independence in 1957, garnered only 30 seats, the alliance's lowest electoral showing.
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