DAP and Amanah claimed that Pakatan Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim failed to secure the support of Sarawak's GPS to be prime minister if the coalition and its allies recaptured federal power.
In a statement this evening, the parties also revealed that the first option which proposed Anwar as prime minister and Mukhriz Mahathir as number two failed to garner the required support from lawmakers.
"After exhausting all efforts, we found that the first option had only managed to gain the support from a maximum of 96 MPs," read the statement.
The parties said that of this figure, 91 were from Harapan and the rest were Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the four Bersatu MPs aligned to the latter.
"The last-ditch effort by Anwar to secure the support of GPS had also failed and the number of support could not reach the amount needed while the deadline has already passed," they added.
However, the statement did not reveal the number of MPs who supported the second option, which is for Mahathir to be prime minister and Anwar as his deputy.
The statement was signed by Amanah communications director Khalid Samad and DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke.
It came a few hours after PKR's top leadership issued their statement stating the party's rejection of Mahathir becoming Harapan's candidate for prime minister.
Earlier this week, Loke had told Malaysiakini that the coalition had two options on the table, one of which was to pair Anwar and Mukhriz Mahathir as PM and deputy PM.
The second option was to nominate Mahathir as their PM candidate again while Anwar would be his deputy for a certain period of time before a power transition between the two.
According to Loke, DAP, PKR and Amanah had explored the first option but reached a dead end as Warisan, another ally, had rejected any option without Mahathir at the helm.
Meanwhile, DAP and Amanah's statement claimed that the coalition's top leaders had agreed to the second option as a backup plan if the first option did not go through.
"We respect PKR's right to make their own decision regarding this matter. But we are a bit puzzled on this position taken by PKR because this option had been accepted as the second option during the Harapan presidential council that was chaired by Anwar Ibrahim at the PKR headquarters on May 30, 2020.
"That meeting arrived at the conclusion that if the first option, which is to name Anwar as the PM candidate, did not work for regaining power, then the second option which is to name Mahathir as PM and Anwar as deputy PM would be taken," said the statement.
Both said they are hoping that Harapan efforts to gain more support through option two could be put in motion as agreed.
"Because the Perikatan Nasional government is clearly inflicting damage on the country and its finances." - Mkini
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