KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 19): Two of Malaysia’s oldest politicians Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, suffered embarrassing defeats in the 15th General Election on Saturday (Nov 19).

Mahathir’s loss in Langkawi and Razaleigh’s defeat in Gua Musang likely signal the end of an era and also the culmination of their political careers.

For Mahathir, in particular, Saturday’s defeat was all the more embarrassing as he managed to secure only 4,566 votes and ended up losing his deposit.

Official results show that the 97-year-old, who contested on a Pejuang Tanah Air ticket, a party he formed in 2020, lost to Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Mohamad Suhaimi Abdullah, his protege on the island when the two-time premier founded Bersatu in 2017.

Mohamad Suhaimi garnered 25,463 votes to win with a majority of 13,518 votes.

He beat Barisan Nasional's Armishah Siraj who won 11,954 votes, Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Zabidi Yahya (5,417 votes) and independent candidate Datuk Abdul Kadir (89).

In 2018, Mahathir, standing as a PH candidate, polled 18,954 votes to win the seat by a majority of 8,369 against PAS and BN.

The veteran politician served as Prime Minister for 22 years and again in 2018 for 22 months. An Umno president from 1981 till 2003, he went on to set up Bersatu, a Malay-centric party which is now a member of the PN coalition.

He later established Pejuang in 2020, following infighting within Bersatu and the takeover of the party by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Over in mainland Kedah, unofficial results show that his son Mukhriz Mahathir is trailing far behind PN's Abdul Ghani Ahmad in Jerlun.

Abdul Ghani bagged 18,758 votes, while Mukhriz only managed to secure 1,865 votes, even fewer than the BN and PH candidates.

In the case of Razaleigh, it is a sad exit for the veteran Umno politician who had previously won the Gua Musang seat for a record eight times since 1986.

The 85-year-old lost by a slim margin of 163 votes to PN candidate Mohd Azizi bin Abu Naim from Bersatu, who garnered 21,826 votes.

The constituency has 70,254 registered voters.

Two other Gua Musang candidates, Datuk Samsu Adabi Mamat of Pejuang and Asharun Uji from PH, lost their deposits.