Even the alliance, which no pundit foresaw, between two nemesis Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim will not be able to dislodge Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in the next general election, argued an analyst in an article published in The Diplomat.

Penang Institute's Ooi Kok Hin cited four reasons for the political gridlock, namely electoral malpractices, institutional failures, political fragmentation and societal fault lines.