KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today claimed that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s alleged 2017 defamatory remarks had led to his defeat in the Langkawi seat contest in the 15th general election (GE15) in 2022.

Testifying in his defamation lawsuit against Zahid, Dr Mahathir said this was because voters in Langkawi were influenced by Zahid’s false accusation that his name is actually "Mahathir anak lelaki Iskandar Kutty”.

"I contested in Langkawi and I have already done all sorts of things for Langkawi, but the people of Langkawi this time rejected me and I’m sure my rejection by the people of Langkawi, Langkawi voters is because Zahid tarnished my name,” Dr Mahathir said.

While acknowledging that Zahid’s remarks were made in 2017, Dr Mahathir claimed that it continued to have an effect even in the 2022 elections as people still believed Zahid’s claims.

"In the end, I was not able to win in Langkawi, where previously I had served in Langkawi and had long worked to develop Langkawi, but the effect from what Zahid said continued on as many quoted his speech and wrote his speech to tarnish my name until Langkawi,” the former two-term Langkawi MP claimed.

While acknowledging that there were other factors such as alleged corruption during GE15 which he could not prove, Dr Mahathir insisted that Zahid’s remarks are still one of the main reasons why Langkawi voters rejected him in 2022.

He also said however he could not determine how much the claim that "Mahathir Mohamad” was not his actual name had impacted his GE15 results.

Earlier, Dr Mahathir also claimed that Zahid’s alleged defamatory remarks in July 2017 had caused his then-party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia to have only won 13 parliamentary seats in its first electoral foray during the 14th general election (GE14) in May 2018.

He said this was because many Umno members and Umno supporters had rejected him over the claim that his name is not actually "Mahathir bin Mohamad”, noting that he had in the past as prime minister and as the leader of Umno saw his then-party Umno win more than two-thirds of parliamentary seats.

"There are other factors, but in this case what was effective was Zahid Hamidi’s accusation that I purportedly am not Malay Muslim and my name is not Mahathir Mohamad, so this confused and influenced voters in the vote made by them,” he said.

He also suggested that Bersatu would have won more than 13 seats if not for the implied claim that he had cheated over his name.

Later during the hearing, Dr Mahathir clarified that the reason he had sued Zahid was because the latter had implied that he had cheated about his name, instead of whether the three individual names in "Mahathir anak lelaki Iskandar Kutty” are names for Muslims.

"I’m not asking whether Mahathir is Islam or not, Iskandar is Islam or not,” he said.

"That is what I’m suing for, it’s not whether Mahathir is Muslim or not. It’s about the whole name that he used implied that my real name according to him is Mahathir anak lelaki Iskandar Kutty, whereas I’m insisting that is not my name, and I did not lie when I said that my name is Mahathir bin Mohamad,” he added.

At around 11am, Dr Mahathir was offered a short break but he said "I can carry on”, while High Court judicial commissioner Gan Techiong quipped "very strong man, 99 years old”.

The court hearing resumes this afternoon.