KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) bid to table a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin may be stymied as the Dewan Rakyat meeting is expected to be delayed by at least two weeks.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the scheduled meeting on March 9 will likely be postponed to make way for several matters, including the appointment of a new Cabinet to handle question time.

“There are also a few things that needed to be sorted out including changes to the Order Paper,” said the source, who wished to remain anonymous as he is not authorised to speak.

“Questions for this Parliament sitting were submitted earlier, so time is needed to alter the Order Paper, and also questions will now be answered by new Cabinet members,” he added.

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The source also said that the next planned date for the meeting had initially been set for March 23, but this was rejected by Muhyiddin, who was just sworn in on Sunday.

“He has to consult with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong first, as the Agong has to officiate the first day [of the meeting],” the source said.  

This will likely put a damper on PH’s plan to call for a no-confidence vote against Muhyiddin, after claiming that the Pagoh MP had misled the Agong over his supposed command of the majority in Dewan Rakyat.

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On Sunday, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said PH will call for an urgent sitting of the Parliament to prove that he has the majority instead.

The former ruling coalition said it has the support of at least 112 MPs out of 222, a simple majority of the Parliament.

Dr Mahathir also warned that the sitting must be done soon as the new federal government may attempt to postpone it as long as they can, leading to fears that the MPs who supported him may be induced to defect.

The Langkawi MP said Muhyiddin is still merely the prime minister by way of the Agong’s appointment, and will still need to prove his legitimacy by showing he commands majority support in the Dewan Rakyat.

The 94 year-old, whose resignation as prime minister last week triggered the collapse of the PH government, claimed Muhyiddin’s appointment was unconstitutional and raised doubts about the latter’s assertion that he had majority support.

It is uncertain if Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof has agreed on the final date for the sitting.

Malay Mail has contacted the Speaker for further comments on the matter, but has not received a reply at the time of writing.

Yesterday, Mohamad Ariff told reporters that he has yet to receive an update on the Parliament sitting, after indicating on Sunday that he would be writing to Muhyiddin to ask whether the Lower House’s sitting scheduled on March 9 will proceed or to be postponed.

However, he insisted that the Dewan Rakyat sitting would not be postponed due the Covid-19 outbreak, as two MPs were possibly exposed.

Complicating the matters is the fact that Muhyiddin has not yet offered any hints about the composition of his Cabinet.

In comparison, Dr Mahathir had named his initial list of ministers merely two days after PH took power in Putrajaya in May 2018.

Muhyiddin will likely face a challenge in satisfying his coalition members, which range from his party Bersatu to Barisan Nasional that had ruled for six decades, to Islamist party PAS who had once been part of the federal government in the 1970s.