Sarawak may decide next PM
Published on: Saturday, February 29, 2020
By: Malay Mail
Kuala Lumpur: Gabungan Parti Sarawak is now holding all the cards as to who becomes Malaysia’s 8th Prime Minister as they are scheduled to announce their choice on March 1.Sarawak deputy chief minister and Parti Rakyat Sarawak President Tan Sri James Masing told the Straits Times the coalition would reveal if they are supporting current front runner Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin then.
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“GPS will make our stand as regard to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on March 1,” he was quoted as saying by Malay Mail.
GPS, which has 18 MPs, is the biggest bloc that has yet to announce its stance and whose votes will decide who becomes the next Prime Minister.
Earlier, Umno and PAS announced that they would be backing Bersatu’s Muhyiddin as Prime Minister, giving him 93 MPs – just one MP ahead of Pakatan Harapan’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Barisan Nasional (BN) Secretary-General Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor later announced that all three of the coalition’s component parties Umno, MCA and MIC (with 39 MPs, two MPs, and one MP respectively) had agreed to nominate Muhyiddin as Prime Minister to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
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With BN’s confirmation of its 42 MPs fully backing Muhyiddin, this means that there are now 96 MPs backing him as compared to the 92 MPs backing Anwar.
At the time of writing, the number of MPs who have not made their stand known for either Muhyiddin or Anwar stands at 34, including the 18 MPs from GPS, nine MPs from Sabah’s Parti Warisan Sabah and seven other MPs.
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Earlier, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong did not identify any MP that had the majority support among MPs to be the Prime Minister, Istana Negara said.
“Istana Negara will contact the leaders of political parties with representatives in the Dewan Rakyat, to give an opportunity to them to present nominations of Dewan Rakyat members as future Prime Minister,” the Comptroller of the Royal Family and Household Datuk Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said in a statement.
“Based on the interview process, in his opinion, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is still not confident that a single parliamentarian has the majority support from the Dewan Rakyat members to form the new government,” Ahmad Fadi added.
He said that Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah also consented to the decision by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof rejecting Interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s bid for a special sitting Monday, on grounds that it does not meet the prerequisites.
“The Yang di-Pertuan Agong would now continue the effort to seek a solution in line with the Federal Constitution, in the interest of the people’s wellbeing, and this country which we all love,” Ahmad Fadi added.
Mohamad Ariff said that the letter submitted by Dr Mahathir did not meet the conditions of Parliament’s Standing Order 11(3) as it did not provide a complete “Notice of Motion”.
The Speaker also concluded that the meeting can only be held upon receiving the decree from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the selection process for the next Prime Minister.
Standing Order 11 (3) states that the purview to decide on a date for the special sitting is with the Dewan Rakyat Speaker and not the interim Prime Minister, Mohamad Ariff asserted in the letter.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) MPs have come up in arms against Dr Mahathir whom they claimed had overstepped his powers when he told reporters Thursday that a special Parliament sitting would be held this Monday to vote for the next Prime Minister.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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