KUALA LUMPUR - The race to identify Malaysia’s 10th prime minister took more twists on Monday, with one alliance claiming it already has the numbers to cross the line and the other still in talks to shore up support.
Perikatan Nasional (PN) said its chief Muhyiddin Yassin has secured the support of a majority of MPs. His direct rival, Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Anwar Ibrahim, was meanwhile trying to win Barisan Nasional’s (BN) backing that could see him reach the magic mark.
While the deadline to prove a parliamentary majority was pushed back 24 hours to 2pm on Tuesday, PN claimed it had sent in statutory declarations from a majority of MPs – ostensibly including some from BN – supporting Tan Sri Muhyiddin to the King ahead of the original cut-off. “The number of statutory declarations sent exceeds 112, which is the number of MPs needed to appoint a prime minister,” said PN secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin.
BN had sought more time to decide whether to support Datuk Seri Anwar for the premiership.
The meeting between Mr Anwar and his BN counterpart Zahid Hamidi ended without an agreement. Zahid said his alliance’s supreme council has not decided who to back. The council will meet on Tuesday morning.
The meeting at the Seri Pacific Hotel in Kuala Lumpur came after Saturday’s general election threw up the nation’s first-ever hung Parliament, with both Mr Anwar and Mr Muhyiddin staking a claim to the prime ministership. Both need support from BN parliamentarians for a simple majority in the 222-seat legislature.
Mr Anwar is backed by 82 lawmakers from PH and its electoral ally Muda. Mr Muhyiddin has the lead with 102 MPs – 73 from PN, six from Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and 23 lawmakers from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS). But one GPS party leader said the coalition should wait for the political wrangling by other parties to be resolved before making a decision.
Umno-led BN has 30 seats, which could help either candidate cross the 112-seat threshold.
Zahid stated that BN had not made any decision to form a government with PN. “Any claims by parties or coalitions that BN has joined them to form the government are all untrue,” he said.
Other party leaders who arrived at the hotel on Monday morning for the meeting included Mr Mohamad Sabu, president of PH component Parti Amanah Negara, and Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who leads BN party Malaysian Chinese Association.
PH’s largest component, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), agreed on Sunday night to Mr Anwar’s move to rope in the Umno-led BN, sources said.
Mr Anwar’s move to team up with BN is controversial as PH has long championed clean governance and vilified Umno as riddled with corruption, while Zahid is on trial for dozens of graft charges.
In 2018, Umno lost power for the first time in six decades on the back of public ire over the 1MDB scandal, in which billions of dollars in public funds were stolen.
“Zahid won’t be given government positions and there will be no interference in his court case. It is a rough, tough decision, but we have to recognise the bigger enemy. PAS cannot be allowed in government,” a member of DAP’s leadership council told The Straits Times, referring to Parti Islam SeMalaysia.
PAS, a member of PN, was the largest party in Parliament with 44 MPs after the election. It espouses Islamist views that critics say infringe on personal freedoms.
While a decision is still pending on their collaboration at the federal level, PH and BN will form state governments in Perak and Pahang, where legislative assemblies were also hung after Saturday’s election.
“Perak PH will form a new state government with BN and, God willing, will be a stable administration,” said Parti Amanah Negara state chief Asmuni Awi.
When asked by reporters on Monday if he had enough MPs backing him, Mr Anwar said BN will make a collective decision and that the statutory declarations from BN lawmakers whom PN claimed supported it would be cancelled.
He also insisted that “there was no reference” to Zahid’s graft charges during negotiations. “I want to make it very clear that this was not raised at all during formal or informal meetings.”
PH chief secretary Saifuddin Nasution Ismail also alleged that Datuk Seri Hamzah’s claim of obtaining a simple majority was “premature, impossible and inconclusive”, as BN MPs had yet to commit to any prime ministerial candidate.
But as at Monday evening, Umno was deeply divided. Some leaders had called on Zahid, who wants to commit BN’s 30 MPs to support PH, to resign, and said they preferred to support PN.
However, Zahid insisted that any written pledge of support for any prime ministerial candidate prior to a decision by BN’s supreme council would be invalid as it violates an oath undertaken by BN candidates to abide by the coalition’s collective decision.
Caretaker Senior Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, said to be leading the pro-PN group, insisted he would not work with Mr Anwar and DAP. “No Anwar, No DAP. Those who feel they can sack me for holding to this stance, go ahead,” he said.
Caretaker Prime Minister and Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s daughter also posted on Instagram a screengrab of a WhatsApp conversation where he said he was “ready to be sacked” but “I will not be with PH”.
Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan led calls for BN to stay in the opposition having been rejected by voters, while MCA president Wee insisted he was shocked to see PH figures when he was summoned for a BN meeting and insisted he was not part of any discussions with their rivals.
