Pakatan claims Anwar commands majority support to be PM, seeks audience with Agong

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has the most number of MPs supporting his candidacy as the next prime minister, Pakatan Harapan (PH) asserted today.

“The Presidential council believes that PH’s candidate, that is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, has received the highest number of nominations from among Members of Parliament based on the process determined by the Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong the other day.

“The Presidential Council believes that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be given a chance to have an audience with the Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong to prove the confidence of the majority of Members of Parliament towards him,” it said in a statement this afternoon.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong had over the past two days personally conducted interviews with MPs in efforts to resolve a political impasse, where no political coalition currently has the simple majority support or at least 112 MPs’ support to be the federal government.

Going by the PH coalition alone, its support for Anwar as PM candidate means that there are 92 MPs backing him.

The 92 MPs are from PH’s remaining component parties DAP, PKR, Parti Amanah Negara.

The PH presidential council also said it trusts the discretion and wisdom of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in finding a solution in the process of appointing the country’s next prime minister.

Amid the political crisis, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had resigned as the prime minister and was appointed as the interim prime minister until his successor is identified.

Today, the Istana Negara’s official statement said that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s efforts in interviewing MPs had not resulted in any MP being identified as someone who can command the confidence of the majority of MPs to form a new government.

The Istana Negara statement also assented to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker’s decision to not call for a special Dewan Rakyat sitting next Monday, while also saying that the leaders of political parties that have MPs would be contacted to seek for their nominations of MPs to be the next prime minister.

Earlier today, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof had announced his rejection of the interim prime minister’s notification of the planned Monday sitting, saying that this was due to incomplete documentation process and also as it preceded any official decrees from the Agong regarding the process of selecting the next prime minister.

Following the Istana Negara and Dewan Rakyat Speaker announcements, PPBM, Umno, MCA, MIC, PAS and PBRS have thrown their support behind PPBM president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister candidate, giving him a slight advantage in numbers against Anwar.

Neither Anwar nor Muhyiddin currently has the simple majority or at least 112 MPs’ support.

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