Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad has never lost an election campaign. He maintained that record and created another one on Thursday when, at 92, he was set to be sworn in as the world's oldest elected leader.
"Yes, yes, I am still alive," a sprightly looking Mahathir said at a 3 a.m. news conference in which he claimed victory over the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that has ruled the Southeast Asian nation since independence six decades ago.
Mahathir led the coalition as Malaysia's prime minister for 22 years, starting in 1981. As one of the country's most eminent leaders, he was pugnacious, uncompromising and intolerant of dissent, but turned Malaysia from a sleepy backwater into one of the world's modern industrialized nations.