Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, the hereditary ruler of the Malaysian state of Johor, was sworn in as Malaysia’s new king on Wednesday, the royal palace said.
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The swearing-in ceremony for the new monarch took place on Wednesday morning at the Royal Palace in Kuala Lumpur. During the ceremony, Sultan Ibrahim as the new monarch and Sultan Nazrin Shah, hereditary ruler of Perak, as viceroy, took the oath of office in the presence of the full Council of Hereditary Rulers of Malaysia.
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Malaysia’s Royal Palace Office issued a statement on Wednesday announcing the official titles of the new king and his wife, the new Queen of Malaysia: His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia and Her Majesty Raja Zarit Sophia, Queen of Malaysia.
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Sultan Ibrahim became the 17th king of Malaysia since the creation of the state. He replaced Sultan Abdullah Riyatuddin Al-Mustafa, the hereditary ruler of Pahang state, whose five-year term of office expired on January 30, on the throne, the publication recalls.
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Sultan Ibrahim was elected as Malaysia’s new king by the Council of Hereditary Rulers in October last year, with a term beginning on January 31, 2024.
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Malaysia, like a number of other countries in the world and in the region, is a constitutional monarchy, but only Malaysia in the whole world uses a system of rotation and election of the monarch. The King of Malaysia is elected once every five years from among themselves by the hereditary rulers of the sultanates that became part of Malaysia as states when the federal state of Malaysia was formed in 1963.
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Previously, the Malay-majority sultanates were part of several British colonies that gained independence in 1957.