Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is confident that the Pakatan Harapan (Pact of Hope) opposition coalition, supported by his party and others, will make electoral history next year and end six decades of rule by the United Malays National Organisation (Umno).
Momentum seems to favour the opposition, given the scandals surrounding the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak. As well, the fragmentation within the opposition ranks in recent years has been mended, but Dr Mahathir still fears trickery in the election that must be held before August 2018.
"There are many stories that are not good for the government because they represent a lot of wrongdoing … and with these many issues, we should win the election and the only problem we have is the possibility of cheating and fraud," he said in an interview with Asia Focus while in Bangkok to attend a recent Bangkok Post forum.
Dr Mahathir, now 92, served as prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, mentoring Mr Najib and other prominent Umno figures before becoming disenchanted and quitting the perpetual ruling party. He now chairs the PH coalition, which was formed in September 2015.
The opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition, the predecessor of PH, came closer than ever before to unseating Umno in the 2013 general election. But the government did not formally register the coalition so each member party had to contest on its own, which limited the effectiveness of the opposition campaign.
The current PH members consist of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), People's Justice Party (PKR), National Trust Party (Parti Amanah Negara or Amanah) and the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia or PPBM, which Dr Mahathir founded after he split from Umno).
Once more, they are seeking registration as a single entity, but supporters claim the Registrar of Societies is stalling. The agency maintains it can't move forward until parties comply with earlier requests. It says DAP has not yet submitted a report on an internal election and that PPBM has not yet held a general meeting as required.
"This time, we are going to contest as a coalition party. However, until now, the government once again has not given its approval so officially, we do not exist," said Dr Mahathir.
"Nevertheless, we are operating as a coalition party. We work together very closely, we campaign together, and we have common objectives, mainly of course to change the government."
Political observers say one potential weakness is the absence of the Malay-majority Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), but Dr Mahathir says PAS might not necessarily join the government coalition either and may choose to campaign independently.
PAS has twice formed state governments in Kelantan and Terengganu and ran Kedah from 2008-13. It holds 14 of the 222 seats in the federal House of Representatives and has elected parliamentarians or state assembly members in 10 of 13 states.
"The Islamic party could be on its own and it might not join the government party or us. ... Nevertheless, it is still a concern for us because they will take away some of the opposition votes," Dr Mahathir said.
The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition's five-year term ends on June 24 and it has won all 13 previous elections, including during Dr Mahathir's 22 years at the helm of the country.
Nevertheless, the coalition has been plagued by corruption scandals, the biggest in recent times involving Felda Global Ventures (FGV) and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), for which no one has yet been held accountable.
Six countries, most notably the United States and Switzerland, have been investigating 1MDB and people linked to Mr Najib for looting the state investment fund that he founded of at least US$2.5 billion. The scandal prompted a huge anti-Najib rally in Kuala Lumpur last year, but the Najib government has never seriously investigated it.
"1MDB is just one of the scandals. There are others, like the prime minister having a huge sum of money in his own account which he cannot explain," said Dr Mahathir, referring to supposed "donations" from Saudi Arabia totalling some $680 million.
"We also saw huge losses incurred by Felda settlements where the assets actually belong to the people, and other issues, among which is the high cost of living, new taxes, and the failure of the government to deliver a lot of things that were promised."
The crisis involving the state-backed FGV, the world's third largest oil palm plantation operator, started when its CEO and three other top executives were suspended indefinitely for alleged mismanagement.
Investigations by Malaysian anti-corruption authorities uncovered a pattern of gross overpayments for property, plantations and other businesses by Felda-related entities.
The implications for the election are substantial because Felda is a major political force in Malaysia. The rural settlers it assists constitute a significant voting bloc, making up the majority of voters in 54 of 222 federal seats; BN won all but six of those seats in 2013.
Farmers are already upset by a long decline in Felda shares due to falling prices of palm oil. This, coupled with the investigation, will not look good for the Najib administration which needs the farmers' votes.
All this should bode well for the opposition but Dr Mahathir says the possibility of voting fraud remains "very worrisome". In his view, the government feels it will not face any action if wrongdoing is detected, since it is in "full control" of the national legal and administrative machinery, including the police and the attorney-general's office. He believes bribery is the "biggest concern" but "other means" of cheating or obstructing the opposition are possible.
For example, he says, opposition supporters who want to make donations are often targeted by income tax officials, making it hard for the opposition to raise funds.
When asked about the possibility of a witch hunt against the opposition if BN wins again, Dr Mahathir was blunt: "Even now there is a kind of witch hunt. People are being harassed by the income tax department, the anti-corruption department, even by the police and this is of course, bad for politics.
"But at the same time, the policy being followed by the present government is very damaging to the county and if they win, then this damage will be heightened and the people will suffer. Already the cost of living has gone up, incomes have shrunk in terms of buying power, the ringgit has depreciated, and all these things are bad for the country."
Dr Mahathir also said that if PH won the election, it would "follow the rule of law" and it would be "up to the court to decide" whether to investigate the allegations that have accumulated against Mr Najib. "Many people would want to see him tried if there is any evidence that he has committed anything wrong," he said.
He expressed dismay that the Malaysian auditor-general has put the 1MDB final audit report under the Official Secrets Act. The Act grants absolute power to the authorities to declare any information an "official secret", and people can go to jail for leaking a classified 1MDB audit report, which certainly hampers any investigation.
And although the Malaysian economy might be doing well with the World Bank raising its 2017 GDP growth forecast for the country from 4.9% to 5.2% in October given stronger investments and recovering global trade, Dr Mahathir noted that "the people are not getting any benefit from this growth".
"The cost of living is high, they have more tax to pay, and they have a lot of unemployment so from the people point of view, the economy is not doing well."
He vowed that the PH coalition, if it won, would stabilise the economy by refraining from introducing taxes that are unnecessary, improve budget management, tackle corruption problems and rein in the government borrowing, as the government debt approaches one trillion ringgit.
"They are still borrowing and there is no way we can pay so we have to stop this borrowing," he said.
In his 2018 budget speech, Mr Najib said federal debts stood at 685 billion ringgit as of June 2017. This works out to 50.9% of GDP.
