Harapan plans to meet next week on PM candidate

Pakatan Harapan plans to hold its presidential council next week to discuss and decide on the prime minister candidate for the opposition coalition.

This came after Amanah and DAP concluded that the proposal to make Warisan president Shafie Apdal as the prime minister for Harapan and its allies should be jointly decided at the coalition level.

DAP urged the presidential council to meet ahead of the next Dewan Rakyat sitting, which is scheduled to commence on July 13.

"We are trying to get a date for the presidential council meeting sometime next week," a source close to the Harapan secretariat told Malaysiakini.

He said the presidential council will decide on the prime minister candidate issue.

"Let them discuss and come out with a decision in the next meeting," he said.

Harapan and its allies, which lost Putrajaya following a political coup led by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, had planned to return to power via a countercoup. However, they failed to arrive at a consensus on the candidate for prime minister.

Among the combinations pitched were PKR president Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister and former Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir as deputy PM, as well as former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister and Anwar (below, right) as deputy prime minister.

Last week, Mahathir (above, left) revealed a proposal to name Shafie as the next prime minister, should Harapan take over the federal government, while Anwar and  Mukhriz would both be deputy prime ministers.

A PKR source said his party did not accept the latest proposal to name Shafie as the prime minister.

"We wanted option one (Anwar-Mukhriz) all along. We had rejected option two (Mahathir-Anwar).

"To us, there is no option three (Shafie-Anwar, Mukhriz). We did not and will not discuss the matter," said the source.

Another PKR source concurred and said his party is not going to call for another central leadership council (MPP) meeting in the near future.

"What we have is only the weekly political bureau meeting, which cannot make a decision on behalf of the party. It has to refer its decision to the MPP," he said.

The source also dismissed any urgency to decide on the prime minister candidate ahead of the coming Dewan Rakyat sitting. - Mkini