马哈蒂尔·穆罕默德成为世界上最年长的政府首脑

The world's oldest head of government takes center stage in Malaysia

AN AGING STRONGMAN.

A CORRUPT protégé.

An opposition leader jailed on trumped-up charges.

Each of the central players in Malaysia's election on May 9 was making a return to the political theater, but recast allegiances made for an upset that few predicted.

At almost 93 years old,

Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad handed the ruling coalition its first defeat since independence, and returned to his old job, this time as the world's oldest head of government.

For his political encore,

Mahathir defected from the ruling coalition he helped build to unite a fractious opposition in its bid to unseat the scandal-dogged incumbent Najib Razak.

"I tried to advise him," he told TIME in an interview on the campaign trail.