Malaysia’s ruling coalition was left humiliated and facing a leadership crisis last night after a “tsunami” backlash at the polls and the worst electoral battering since independence.

Although his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition remains comfortably in power, nationwide calls for the immediate resignation of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the Prime Minister, were joined by that of Mohamad Mahathir, Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime Minister and the architect of its emergence as a modern state.

In a startling admission of personal guilt in the matter, the still hugely influential Dr Mahathir issued a statement already being touted as Mr Badawi’s political death sentence. He condemned his successor, whom he anointed five years ago — for having destroyed a once invincible ruling bloc. “He should accept responsibility for this. He should accept 100 per cent responsibility,” said Dr Mahathir. “I am sorry, but apparently I made the wrong choice.”

Saturday’s election produced a result that startled even the most optimistic opposition supporters. Across the country, once-loyal voters deserted in their thousands, to the benefit of Malaysia’s best-organised opposition bloc in nearly 40 years.

To avoid splitting the vote, opposition parties agreed to field only one candidate between them in most seats and banked on defections from all ethnic groups to whoever was standing against the BN. The gamble — designed principally by Dr Mahathir’s former protégé, Anwar Ibrahim — paid off handsomely.

“This is a defining moment, unprecedented in our nation’s history,” said the de facto opposition leader. “The people have voted decisively for a new era where the Government must be truly inclusive and recognise that all Malaysians, regardless of race and colour, culture and religion, are a nation of one.”

For the first time since 1969, the BN lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority — the power base with which it has steamrollered legislation and changed the Constitution at will — and now controls 140 seats in the 222-seat Parliament. Worse was the unprecedented swing in the 13 powerful state assemblies, of which five are now controlled by the Opposition.

Dr Mahathir admitted that the result reflected the growing racial tensions in Malaysia and a swell of anger among Chinese, Indians and even Malays.

“The problem is we have become so arrogant. We suppress any opinion that we do not like and they begin to believe in their own reports, which are not actually consistent with what is happening in the country,” he said.

His remarks echoed the rising fury of many Malaysians who believe that the Badawi Government has failed woefully to follow through its promises to put an end to corruption, deal with growing economic disparities and cut crime.

Equally loud among voters has been condemnation of the media, which has rarely challenged the leadership. Campaigners in the central Kuala Lumpur district of Titiwangsa said that the election of their opposition candidate, Lo’ Lo’ Mohd Ghazali, “was won with the internet and SMS”.

If Mr Badawi yields to pressure and steps down, his most likely successor is his deputy, Najib Razak.

Voters in the Bukit Bintang district of the capital told The Times that they were treating the election as their verdict on “post-Mahathir Malaysia and the post-Mahathir Government”.

In Kota Alam Shah, this was the moment that supporters of Manoharan Malayalam had been waiting for, the older ones said, for 40 years, and they could feel the tidal wave coming.

Mr Manoharan had been forced to watch his entire campaign from an internal security cell — detained without charge since December for organising an unprecedented rally calling for an end to discrimination against ethnic Indians. Many of the supporters who brought him victory in Kota Alam Shah, where 22 per cent of the population are Indians, used to be staunch supporters of the BN.

“We are suppressed, marginalised, and barred from education — you can name any field and Indians in this country are denied it,” said V. K. Vembarasan, a campaigner for Mr Manoharan. “This election is us showing the Government that we want to end its corruption, its misspending and its mismanagement of the economy.”

Today, as the BN and the rest of Malaysia awake to a completely changed political landscape, the demands for Mr Manoharan’s release will be hard to resist. “The tsunami has spoken,” said Mr Vembarasan.

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