92-year-old Mahathir sworn in as Malaysia’s 7th Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday was sworn in as Malaysia’s seventh prime minister following his stunning election victory over the coalition that has ruled the Southeast Asian nation for six decades since independence from Britain.

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, as 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.

Mahathir ruled Malaysia with an iron fist from 1981 to 2003, while 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.

Earlier, Najib appeared to raise doubts that Mahathir would immediately take office because no single party had won a simple majority of seats in the 222-member parliament, and it would be up to the monarch to decide.

Official results showed that Mahathir’s coalition won 121 seats, comfortably over the 112 required to rule, but it has not been formally registered as an alliance.