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Malaysia's constitutional monarch, Sultan Muhammad V,
administered the oath of office just before 10 p.m. (1400 GMT), in a ceremony
carried live on state television from the palace.
Mahathir, 92, was dressed in a traditional black "baju
melayu" tunic and sarong, with an Islamic cap on his head. He is the
oldest elected leader in the world.
Hundreds of Malaysians were lined up on the road leading to the
palace, waving party flags and cheering. The Election Commission announced
the result long before dawn and there was some consternation in the capital
over the time taken to swear in the new prime minister.
"There is an urgency here, we need to form the government
now, today," Mahathir told a news conference earlier in the day, where
he insisted that he would be sworn in on May 10.
Mahathir ruled Malaysia from 1981 to 2003. He came out of
retirement to take on his former protege, Najib Razak, who was prime minister
for nearly a decade.
Mahathir's alliance of four parties trounced Najib's Barisan
Nasional (BN), the first time it had ever lost an election.
Official results showed that Mahathir's coalition won 121 seats,
comfortably more than the 112 required to rule. But it has not been formally
registered as an alliance.
Najib's BN coalition won 79 seats, a collapse from the 133 it
won in the 2013 election, which was itself the coalition's worst poll
performance ever at the time.
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Source: NDO
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