Malaysian PM 'to quit in March'

Abdullah Badawi has been under pressure since the polls in March

Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has announced that he will step down from office in March.

The move will effectively hand power of the ruling National Front coalition, and therefore the job of prime minister, to his deputy Najib Razak.

Mr Abdullah has been under pressure to quit since disastrous election results earlier this year.

He has faced discontent within his own party, and also an increasingly strong opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim.

"I am now announcing I will not seek the presidency of Umno [United Malays National Organisation] in the upcoming elections. I want a party that is united," Mr Abdullah told a news conference.

By tradition, the president of Umno is leader of the coalition government and therefore prime minister as long as the coalition is in power.

"I hope Najib will be my successor, I believe he can win," Mr Abdullah told reporters.

Switching allegiance

Mr Abdullah resisted pressure to resign in the immediate aftermath of the election result in March, in which the government lost its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time since Malaysian independence.

Many of Umno's traditional supporters from the majority Malay community switched allegiance to Anwar Ibrahim's multiracial coalition, the People's Alliance.

In the months after the polls, Mr Abdullah hammered out a plan for a transition of power to Mr Najib in 2010, but his critics still remained unsatisfied.

Mr Anwar is now threatening to bring down the government with parliamentary defections from the National Front.

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