Pieces are being moved across the chessboard as anticipation grows that Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin will resign as prime minister soon.
While there has been no confirmation on this, Muhyiddin is slated to meet the Yang di Pertuan Agong on Monday.
A meeting between all opposition parties including Warisan, Pejuang, Upko and PSB is expected to be held tomorrow.
The meeting will be an avenue for PKR president Anwar Ibrahim to consolidate support for him as a prime minister candidate.
At present, Anwar's Pakatan Harapan coalition has 88 MPs.
However, he will need to convince the other opposition groups especially Warisan and Pejuang to accept this. Both have been reluctant to back Anwar in the past.
But even if the PKR president manages to unite the other opposition parties, he will only have 105 MPs, six short of a majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
Anwar would thus either have to get the support from at least six of the 15 Umno MPs fighting against Muhyiddin or secure defections from the prime minister's partners in Perikatan Nasional such as GPS.
Getting support from Umno would be tough as the party's supreme council and general assembly had been very firm in that they would not prop up Anwar or a government that includes DAP in it.
The opposition leader, however, isn't the only contender for the prime minister's post should Muhyiddin step down.
Umno sources aligned to party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi have told Malaysiakini that Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is being pushed as a possible candidate.
Razaleigh would be a compromise between the warring Umno factions and could be palatable to PAS and others in Perikatan Nasional who want to keep Anwar and his ally DAP out of Putrajaya.
An Umno MP aligned with vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob indicated that if it came down to Razaleigh or Anwar, then the Gua Musang MP would be his choice.
However, the MP who declined to be named, believed Ismail would be a better choice.
The Bera MP, who is currently deputy prime minister, may be more acceptable to Bersatu as well but he may face resistance from the Zahid camp.
This is after Ismail continued to stand by Muhyiddin in defiance of the party's decisions.
He would need to get 11 out of the 15 MPs aligned to the Umno president in order to get a majority.
An Umno supreme council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested that Muhyiddiin could also keep his government intact if he met Zahid.
"If he (Muhyiddin) is magnanimous, he can meet Zahid and ask to keep the coalition together by handing it to Umno and reshuffling the cabinet," the source told Malaysiakini.
Muhyiddin is currently 11 MPs short of a majority.
He had extended an olive branch to the opposition yesterday in order to gain support for an upcoming vote of confidence.
He promised major reforms, including term limits on the prime minister's tenure in exchange for keeping the government stable until June next year.
However, while some Harapan lawmakers have said the offer should be considered, the coalition's top leadership as well as other opposition parties have all rejected Muhyiddin's overtures.
The situation will likely remain fluid until Monday. Whoever wants to be prime minister will need 111 MPs on their side to have a simple majority. - Mkini
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