Who's the owner of the RM26,666 number plate mocking PM's Madani?

The bidding for the MADANI special number plate series ended last night with the highest price being offered for "MADANI 8481", a number seen as mocking the government slogan  promoted by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

At the end of the five-day online bidding last night, MADANI 8481 realised RM26,666, followed by two other numbers that fetched RM17,300 and RM9,999 respectively.

The final bid for MADANI 8481 was placed just one minute before the deadline at 10pm.

The Road Transport Department (JPJ) had released the MADANI special series for bidding on Oct 19, with the price ranging from RM100 to RM20,000.

Anwar as the country’s 10th prime minister is already the proud owner of "MADANI 10" plate, which was presented to him by Transport Minister Anthony  Loke shortly after the bidding was opened.

However, attention quickly turned to two number plates, MADANI 8481 and MADANI 47.

The number 8481 is popular with Malaysian car number enthusiasts and denotes the word "BABI" (pig).

The number 47, meanwhile,refers to the 47 corruption charges that were slapped on Anwar's deputy, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Zahid, the Umno president who was instrumental in ensuring Anwar formed the government after the hung parliament in the 2022 general election, had faced 47 charges involving criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.

In September last year, he was controversially granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA), bringing an abrupt end to his corruption trial.

Since then, critics have been using the number "47" in internet memes mocking Zahid.

MalaysiaNow was unable to identify the owner of MADANI 8481.

JPJ director-general Aedy Fadly Ramli had said the results of the bidding process would be announced today.