KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the dissolution of parliament on Friday, more than two months before the end of his five-year term, paving the way for a general election.
Najib, 64, burdened by a multi-billion dollar scandal linked to a state fund, is under pressure to deliver an emphatic win for his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition as he struggles to appease voters unhappy with rising living costs and blunt a challenge by his old mentor and former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Najib is widely expected to retain power, especially with a deep rift between Mahathir’s opposition alliance and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which analysts expect will split the opposition vote.
Najib said he met Malaysia’s king, Sultan Muhammad V, to gain approval for the dissolution.
“The king has permitted for parliament to be dissolved effective Saturday, April 7,” Najib said in a special announcement on the state TV broadcaster.
“If victory is given to BN, we promise to do our best, to carry out a bigger, more inclusive and more comprehensive transformation of the country,” Najib said.
Polling must be held within 60 days from the dissolution of parliament. The Election Commission is expected to meet within the week to announce a date for the vote.
Najib’s announcement comes on the back of robust growth for Malaysia, buoyed by a recovery in global crude oil prices and increased trade and infrastructure investment from Malaysia’s largest trading partner, China.
A general election was widely expected to be called last year, but Najib held off, apparently to allow time for the introduction of budgetary reforms aimed at lower income families and rural voters, who make up a key voting bloc for his ruling BN coalition.
The government has also approved the election commission’s plan to redraw electoral boundaries and passed a contentious anti-fake news bill, changes that the opposition claims would favor Najib and his ruling allies.
Najib’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party heads the ruling coalition that has held power since Malaysia’s independence in 1957. The coalition lost the popular vote in the last election, in 2013, but Najib held on to power with a smaller majority in parliament.
But a weaker result, even if the coalition retains power, could lead to an internal leadership challenge against Najib.
Najib resisted demands to step down in mid-2015 following reports of financial mismanagement at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), including that $681 million was deposited into his personal bank account.
Najib has denied any wrongdoing. Transactions related to 1MDB are under investigation in six countries including the US, Singapore and Switzerland.
Najib has clamped down on dissent, sacking critics from his cabinet and party who questioned his involvement in 1MDB.
The scandal has created a rift between Najib and 92-year-old Mahathir, who ruled for 22 years before retiring in 2003, and has become Najib’s harshest critic.
With the common goal of taking down Najib, Mahathir has joined hands with his former deputy and jailed opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, ending a bitter feud that had shaped the country’s political narrative over two decades.
Scandal-hit Najib dissolves Malaysian parliament, paves way for general election
Scandal-hit Najib dissolves Malaysian parliament, paves way for general election
Greek court to deliver verdict on 2022 spyware scandal
- Predator is sophisticated software that makes it possible to infiltrate mobile phones, access messages and photos, and even remotely activate the microphone and camera
Athens: A Greek court was due Thursday to deliver its verdict on an illegal wiretapping scandal targeting politicians, journalists, business leaders and senior military officials that shook the conservative government in 2022.
Dubbed the "Greek Watergate" by local media, it forced the resignation of senior officials in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's administration.
Four defendants -- two Israelis including a former soldier and two Greeks -- face up to five years in prison for violating the confidentiality of telephone communications. They deny involvement.
The sentences are expected to be suspended, to the outrage of lawyers for the victims. The defendants could benefit from a 2019 law under which breaches of the confidentiality of communications are classed as a misdemeanour.
The defendants include Tal Dilian, a former Israeli soldier and founder of Intellexa, a company specialising in the supply of spyware, which marketed the Predator software in Greece.
His partner, as well as two former Greek executives of the company, are also on trial.
According to Greek media reports, Dilian, who remains free pending judgement, is not expected to be in court for the verdict.
Politicians, journalists monitored
The affair broke in early 2022 when a Greek investigative journalist, Thanassis Koukakis, discovered he had been wiretapped by the intelligence services (EYP) and that his phone had also been infected with the Predator spyware.
Predator is sophisticated software that makes it possible to infiltrate mobile phones, access messages and photos, and even remotely activate the microphone and camera.
"The government initially played down the affair to cover for the real political culprits," Koukakis told AFP in an interview a few months ago.
According to the Greek Authority for Communication Security and Privacy watchdog (ADAE) however, it was used against more than 90 people.
It snowballed into a political scandal in July 2022, when the soon-to-be leader of the socialist Pasok-Kinal party, Nikos Androulakis, revealed that his mobile phone had also been tapped.
At the time, Androulakis was a member of the European Parliament.
Facing mounting pressure, Mitsotakis insisted that the government had "never purchased or used" Predator.
The prosecutor in the case however made it clear he found that difficult to accept in his closing arguments earlier this month.
"Predator is not accessible to private individuals; it is only offered for sale to state services," he told the court.
High-level resignations
The "Greek Watergate" led to the resignation of one of the prime minister's closest aides, his nephew Grigoris Dimitriadis.
The head of the EYP intelligence service also stepped down.
Mitsotakis later weathered a motion of no confidence in parliament.
In July 2024, the Supreme Court cleared the intelligence services and political officials of wrongdoing, angering victims and human rights bodies.
Paris-based media rights campaigners Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has described this case as "a fresh blow to media freedom" in Greece.
Only two proven victims of Predator were questioned by the Supreme Court, and the prosecutor did not request access to the bank accounts of the company that marketed the software.
The Greek employees who, in December 2021, hurriedly moved the servers out of their office were not questioned either.
"One may wonder whether the case was really investigated or whether everything was done to bury it," Androulakis's lawyer, Christos Kaklamanis, told the court.
The socialist leader has filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
