KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today he would wait for the 14th general election, after he failed to reverse his second sodomy conviction.

"Of course I shouldn’t say I’m surprised. But I’m disappointed. I’m just hoping for one avenue, where there is one judge with that courage and conviction, that ‘I respect the law and justice’.

"Otherwise wait for GE14,” he told reporters, referring to the 14th general election.

Earlier today, the High Court dismissed Anwar’s bid to reverse his second sodomy conviction, calling it a backdoor attempt to secure his release from prison.

Judge Datuk Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad also ruled that Anwar had failed to name the person he had accused of obtaining an allegedly fraudulent conviction against him.

"There is a need to name the particular officer under the Government Proceedings Act under his statement of claim, so that the government can answer on the fraud allegation,” Nik Hasmat said, adding that the fraud allegation was only brought up a "few years later”, after Anwar had been convicted.

On February 8, Anwar argued that that the conviction against him was affirmed by way of fraud.

Anwar filed a legal challenge against his second conviction for sodomy in April last year, claiming the government had used "perjured” evidence in their case, demanding that he be freed from prison.

In his submission, Anwar only named the government as the defendant.

Anwar, a former deputy prime minister-turned-Opposition leader, was charged with sodomising his then-aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008.

He was initially acquitted after a long trial in 2012, but the government appealed and he was later convicted and sentenced in February 2015.

Last year, Anwar’s lawyers N. Surendran and Latheefa Koya formally sent the Malaysian government a request to release Anwar from prison early, arguing that he had served more than half his prison term and that he is also the lynchpin for the Pakatan Harapan Opposition pact.

Surendran later told reporters after the High Court decision today that he would be challenging Nik Hasmat’s ruling in the Court of Appeal.