Ex-PM Mahathir is now Malaysia's oldest MP
At 92, he won the seat of Langkawi with 44.4% of the vote
Malaysia's longest serving prime minister is now its oldest Member of Parliament.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad has won a resounding victory for the parliamentary seat of Langkawi, Kedah, with 44.4 per cent of the vote.
The 92-year-old leader of Pakatan Harapan (PH) beat Parti Islam SeMalaysia's (PAS) Zubir Ahmad, as well as Mr Nawawi Ahmad from the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN).
Before voting began, he made an impassioned plea to allow him to correct past mistakes.
"Most people think I should rest. Yes, I want to rest. (But) one after another came and asked me to do something to save this beloved country. I can't let them down," he said.
On the national scale, he has claimed victory as well but that was in dispute as of press time.
The Election Commission (EC) said that no party has simple majority of 112 seats as of press time.
It said some results that had gone "viral" were unofficial and had not been verified, Reuters reported.
"Of course, political parties can declare whoever (they believe has won), but... please wait," EC chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah told reporters shortly after midnight.
"We would like to announce it as quickly as possible as well."
Official results at press time showed that Dr Mahathir's PH had won 80 of Parliament's 222 seats and Prime Minister Najib Razak's BN had won 67 while the other major party PAS had won 14 and independents had three.
A simple majority of 112 seats is required by a party or alliance to rule, a number Dr Mahathir said his PH believed it had won.
NOT FAKE NEWS
Before the result announcement by the EC, Dr Mahathir had said: "It would seem that we have practically achieved that figure of 112 and the figure for BN is very much less than that. There is no way they can catch up."
He added: "This isn't fake news. They are left far behind. The likelihood is that (BN) will not be forming the government. We believe certain meetings are being held. And we worry what is the intention of these meetings which involve big names.
"We believe that from our official counting that they are left far behind. The likelihood is that they will not be forming the government."
There was no immediate comment from the ruling coalition.
Official results showed that BN lost key state Negeri Sembilan and unofficial results showed that it may have lost Johor.
These have traditionally been its strongholds, raising the prospect that it could be voted out of power for the first time in the country's six decades of independence from Britain.
BN faced a far greater challenge in this election than ever before amid public anger over the cost of living and a multi-billion-dollar scandal that has dogged Mr Najib since 2015.
An election-eve opinion poll had suggested that support for BN was slipping and Dr Mahathir's alliance would land the most votes in Peninsular Malaysia, home to 80 per cent of the population in this South-east Asian nation.
However, under Malaysia's electoral system, the party or alliance with the majority of parliament seats wins, and going into the poll most experts had believed that was within Mr Najib's reach.
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