Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be Malaysia’s next premier if Pakatan Harapan wins the 14th General Election (GE14), Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail announced.

She described Anwar, who is her husband and PKR de facto leader, as ‘capable to handle the crisis that the country is currently facing’.

“This is Pakatan Harapan’s first step – announcing Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the candidate for Prime Minister if we win GE14.

“We are confident that he is the most suitable candidate to handle economic crises, government mismanagement, public welfare, national unity and the credibility crisis that was left by Datuk Seri Najib Razak,” she said.

Wan Azizah made the statement after announcing the newly formed Opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan, which replaces the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat.

Anwar is currently serving jail time in Sungai Buloh prison. On February 10, the Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s 2014 ruling that had reversed Anwar’s acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, also sentencing the former opposition leader to five years’ jail.

Now aged 67, Anwar might not emerge from prison until the age of 72 if he serves the full term. He was also stripped of his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat and disqualified from running in the next GE.

Since his imprisonment, Anwar’s family and legal team had been calling for him to be transferred under house arrest so that he can have better access to medical care and treatment, following his deteriorating health.

Anwar was warded at Kuala Lumpur Hospital for four days from June 2 after reportedly suffering from bloody stools, significant weight loss, high blood pressure and shoulder pains.

About a month later, he was again admitted to the same hospital for a physiotherapy treatment and a CT scan on his kidneys, among others.