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.
“GPS will make our stand as regard to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on March 1,” he is quoted saying.
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.
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.
A Flourish chart
Muhyiddin edges closer to be eighth PM with expected Warisan backing
KUALA LUMPUR — Sabah’s ruling bloc is expected to back the nomination of Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to be Malaysia’s next prime minister.
Sources told Malay Mail that Parti Warisan Sabah is expected to add its nine MPs to the mix, although their ally, Upko, with one MP, is expected to abstain.
However, one source close to the Sabah bloc stressed that the numbers are “not confirmed until it comes from CM”, referring to Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.
Shafie was believed to have met Muhyiddin earlier today.
Should Warisan confirm its support, Muhyiddin would have 105 MPs out of 222 behind him.
This includes Bersatu’s 36, Barisan Nasional’s 42 and PAS’s 18.
Sarawak’s ruling pact, GPS, has said it will announce its decision on Sunday. Whoever gains GPS’s support will have the majority support of the lower house and can form the government.
However, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri James Masing had said that the party is not willing to work with “arrogant” DAP, and would rather deal with Islamist Party PAS’s religious leanings.
He said that the party would announce its pick for the Prime Minister’s post on March 1.
Interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also Bersatu advisor, had said yesterday that in default of his vision of a non-partisan government, he was prepared to support Muhyiddin for the Prime Minister post if the majority voted him in.
The scenario is looking likely with Pakatan Harapan holding only about 93 votes from MPs in support of PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
GPS, Warisan, Upko and several other individual MPs are the only ones yet to publicly announce their choice for the PM post.
MALAY MAIL
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