摘要：After a nail-biting wait for over a year, during which Malaysians had to endure countless speculations about the date of the inevitable 13th General Elections (GE13), Prime Minister Najib Razak chose the fourth anniversary of his Premiership – 2 April 2013, to announce that GE13 was to take place one month later, on 5 May 2013. Najib Razak's decision to drag the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to fulfil its full five-year term was unprecedented for a Prime Minister, and all the more peculiar for a sitting leader of government without a personal mandate of his own. The previous two Prime Ministers who inherited administrations from leaders who resigned mid-term, namely Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, upon taking over from Hussein Onn and Mahathir in 1981 and 2003 respectively, had called for general elections within a year of assuming the reins of government, and upon subsequent election triumphs, sought to reshuffle membership of cabinets to their own liking in attempts to mould administrations in accordance with their inclinations and interests
