KUALA LUMPUR, February 28 — 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.
