Tun M Says He Now Has The Majority To Be The 8th Prime Minister
Dr Mahathir said this after meeting with Pakatan Harapan presidential council Saturday morning.
By Sadho Ram — 29 Feb 2020, 11:15 AM
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who resigned as the seventh Prime Minister only to be appointed as interim Prime Minister by the Agong, has now released a statement saying that he has the majority to be named as a candidate for the post of Malaysia's eighth Prime Minister
In his statement today, 29 February, the nonagenarian first denied signing any statutory declaration in support of any individual and clarified that while he is not prepared to work with those who are corrupt from UMNO and can only accept them individually if they are proven clean, his statements about supporting Muhyiddin Yassin was due to the latter' "more relaxed" approach towards UMNO kleptocrats.
What Dr Mahathir basically said that he will not work with people who are corrupt, but Muhyiddin may be open to working with them. Bersatu nominated him as the eighth Prime Minister on Friday.
The interim Prime Minister has now offered himself as a candidate for the post of the eighth Prime Minister with complete support of the Pakatan Harapan presidential council.
"This decision will be conveyed to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong," Dr Mahathir said in his statement.
Pakatan Harapan, in a separate statement, confirmed that the coalition will support Dr Mahathir. This comes after their previous statement where they said they are supporting Anwar Ibrahim.
In this picture posted by DAP's Liew Chin Tong today, Pakatan Harapan leaders with Dr Mahathir.
Image via Liew Chin Tong/Facebook
In essence, Dr Mahathir has distanced himself from his party's statement yesterday, in which Bersatu said it was supporting its president Muhyiddin as its candidate for the post of Prime Minister
In the statement yesterday, Bersatu's secretary general Marzuki Yahya said that a meeting attended by 36 Bersatu MPs had decided to nominate party president Muhyiddin Yassin as a candidate.
Muhyiddin, who had appeared to have an edge in the race to get majority support from MPs backing him as a candidate, now sees the candidature in doubt after Dr Mahathir's statement.
Regardless, Muhyiddin is currently at Istana Negara to meet with Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah. Muhyiddin is accompanied by Azmin Ali, Annuar Musa, Abdul Hadi Awang, GPS chief whip Fadillah Yusof, according to a report by Malaysiakini.
The country's current political crisis was caused by #LangkahSheraton, believed to have been played by Azmin Ali and Muhyiddin himself. Follow our coverage of the events since then:
