It is a strange state of affairs when the candidate offering most hope of change in an election is a one-time authoritarian who has reached the ripe old age of 92.
Yet with the energy of one much younger, Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s former prime minister of 22 years, has bounded around the country, electrifying rallies with speeches decrying government corruption and crony capitalism that once flourished under his rule too — albeit to a lesser extent.
By any standards, Malaysia’s general elections on Wednesday are troubling. Mr Mahathir’s reinvention at the head of the opposition Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) he once sought to crush has added drama to what might otherwise have been predictable stage management by the incumbent prime minister Najib Razak.