[1][6] Azhar was first appointed as the Chairman of EC on 21 September 2018,[7][8] not long after the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition under new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad came into power succeeding their campaigns against previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government corruptions and abuses in the 2018 general election (GE14), as his past experience and known reputation suits the institutional reforms agenda of new ruling PH administration and the peoples' mandate as well as expectations had made himself a right choice.

[14][15] The replacement of Ismail Sabri Yaakob of Barisan Nasional (BN) as the new Prime Minister of the PN government in August 2021 allowed Azhar to remain as Parliament Speaker.

[18][19] He has rejected a motion on 6 October 2021 proposed by Opposition Leader, Anwar Ibrahim to debate the Pandora Papers and dismissed the matter as "not urgent" despite it being widely and internationally considered a big amount of money being illegally siphoned and held offshore (outside the country) that must be investigated immediately.

[20][21][22] On 20 July 2020, Azhar claimed that he did not order a judge to adjourn the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial against former prime minister Najib Razak so that the latter can deliver a speech in parliament.

[24][25] On 20 January 2022, Azhar was slammed again for preventing Parliament from debating the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki shareholding controversy.