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Malaysian opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim can't vote in what he says will be a "defining election" on Wednesday but even from his prison cell has remained a potent political force.

The firebrand politician's conviction in 2015 for what he and his supporters say were false allegations of sodomy fractured an opposition alliance that under Anwar was threatening the ruling National Front's decades-long hold on power.

Anwar then played an unexpected card. From prison he helped forge a new opposition bloc by ending a feud with his former persecutor-in-chief, ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, who once called Anwar "morally unfit."

The 92-year-old Mahathir now leads an alliance that includes Anwar's party. They're campaigning to oust Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is mired in scandal, and end the National Front's unbroken 60-year rule.