Mahathir Mohamad tells the media he has a clear mandate to form a new government in Malaysia.Credit:AP
This is uncharted territory for Malaysia and,at the time of writing,it is still not clear what happens next.
Analysts and pollsters have been shocked by the result,which has turned the political system of a nation of 31 million people on its head and defied south-east Asia's long tendency to move towards one-party rule and authoritarian leaders.
It comes at a time when populist,strongman leaders such as Hun Sen in Cambodia and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines are in the ascendant – to say nothing of Donald Trump,Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
And in a supreme irony,the victory has been achieved by Mahathir,a man who was himself the strongman prime minister of Malaysia for 22 years until 2003,and who had a fondness for crushing political opponents such as one-time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar Ibrahim in 2015 as he loses his final appeal against a sodomy charge.Credit:File
Australians will forever recall Mahathir for his"recalcitrant"stoush with Paul Keating in the early 1990s.
Now we,like people around the world,will also know him as the man who finally achieved an unlikely victory by an opposition party in a democratic election in a country that is a near neighbour,ally,and close trading partner.