KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23 — Malaysia longest serving prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad said that the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) scandal has become an issue that could push elections to next year despite calls from Barisan Nasional (BN) to do so earlier.

"Can you imagine, they allocated RM6 billion for six ships, and not one was built, not even one.

"It’s mind blowing,” said Dr Mahathir in an interview with news site Bloomberg yesterday.

Earlier this month, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a report saying that none of the six warships had been completed or delivered despite the government spending RM6 billion so far.

In the report, the committee added that the government had also overspent RM1.4 billion on the project, with RM400 million used to repay old debts of Ministry of Defence-related projects.

The scandal has also attracted public attention and was compared to the 1MDB scandal that toppled the BN government in 2018.

Factions within BN and Umno have been calling for a snap poll since their landslide victories in the Melaka and Johor state elections over the past twelve months.

However, current prime minister and Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, who has the prerogative to call for election, said he would like to focus on dealing with more pressing concerns, including inflation and controversy over the LCS contract.

Malaysia is not due for an election until September 2023.