CHERAS, May 11 — Despite being out of the election contest, PKR’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is "jubilant” and feels he contributed to the power change in Malaysia after decades of rule under Barisan Nasional (BN), his wife said today.

Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also PKR president and winning coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) president, visited her husband for hours today before meeting the media.

"I was very happy when I met my husband, he was in a jubilant mood... He followed all the news of the new prime minister being sworn in and Pakatan Harapan’s win, that we have created history.

"And that he is part of it and then he actually felt — even though he was a spectator this time, not within the ring so to speak — that he has contributed to the first change of government in 61 years.

"So he feels jubilant, and I think it has helped his health,” she said at around 5.30pm at the hospital here.

"And we are all very grateful that the transition has been smooth, and we hope and pray for better governance for the future of our country, for the future of the people. And this is a new dawn.

"But we went through this together. This is how Anwar feels. That this movement which started 20 years ago has actually brought success and a feeling of victory,” she said, adding that Anwar has a problem with his arm but that it was all forgotten amid the jubilant mood.

In an unexpected win, PH won the 14th general election, leading to BN’s first-ever defeat in the nation’s history.

PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who also visited Anwar at the hospital, said the latter was "extremely happy”.

"Especially after we have waited for almost 20 years in the context of the reform movement, but in the context of Malaysians as a whole, we are talking about 60 years under the BN government.

"Obviously, he was very happy. And he kept on asking us about the performance of every state, every constituency… ‘That candidate, how can he win?’ ‘How big was the majority?’ ‘What sort of campaign, what sort of problems?’ He wanted to know more and more,” he said.