We warmly congratulate the people of Malaysia on peacefully and respectfully exercising their democratic right to vote on 9 May.  Australia strongly supports the rights of citizens in any country to choose their leaders openly and freely protected by the rule of law.
 
We congratulate Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad on his appointment as Prime Minister of Malaysia, and the Pakatan Harapan coalition for their historic election victory.
Australia and Malaysia have a rich, broad and deep contemporary relationship, full of potential, and underpinned by shared interests and values. Our economic, defence, security and people-to-people links are strong and growing.
The Australian Government looks forward to continuing to work with Malaysia to further strengthen the partnership and friendship between our two countries and peoples.