KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa has disputed Bersatu Youth chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman’s assertion that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin falsely claimed to have the support of all his party’s federal lawmakers.
Annuar purported that he has seen the complete line-up of MPs that the Bersatu president prepared for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to make the case for his eventual appointment as the prime minister.
“I listened to S Saddiq Al Jazeera interview. He accused TSMY misled the King by claiming that 36 MPs from BERSATU were among those supported him.
“This is blatant lies. TSMY never include SS,MM&TM and he never claimed all BERSATU MPs supported him. I was there when we make final list!” Annuar wrote on Twitter today.
Annuar’s assertion will increase speculation about Muhyiddin’s true level of support, which the Pakatan Harapan coalition insist did not reach the 112-seat minimum needed for a simple majority in Parliament.
The former ruling coalition is waiting for Parliament to reconvene so that it may test the validity of Muhyiddin’s claimed support via a motion of no-confidence.
It had planned to do this at the Parliament meeting initially scheduled for tomorrow, but which has since been postponed to May 18.
Yesterday, the coalition’s leaders continued to dispute Muhyiddin’s support, arguing that he could not count former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and between five and six other Bersatu MPs among those backing him.
Dr Mahathir resigned unexpectedly as the prime minister last month, triggering a political crisis that culminated in Muhyiddin’s appointment as the eighth PM of Malaysia leading the so-called Perikatan Nasional-GPS coalition.
