It’s not the first time Anwar Ibrahim has claimed he has the majority to form the government, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said, The Edge Singapore reports.
He was asked about the PKR president’s announcement today just before giving a speech over Zoom at the Nutanix ASEAN CIO Virtual Summit.
“We will have to wait to see if this is another episode of making claims that cannot be substantiated,” the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman and prime minister was quoted as saying.
He said this was “not the first time” Anwar had made such a claim.
This is the second September that Anwar says he is in a position to form a government. The first was in 2008, when the then administration led by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi lost the traditional Barisan Nasional (BN) parliamentary two-thirds super-majority.
Anwar today claimed he had a “strong, formidable” majority from MPs to change the federal government but did not state the exact numbers when pressed several times by journalists.
He said he would only reveal the numbers to the public after meeting the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. He said this meeting would be held “soon”, as the king is currently warded at the National Heart Institute.
There are 222 seats in Parliament, of which 109 are with the opposition.
Anwar today said Dr Mahathir and his new party Pejuang, had not yet decided to join him.
Anwar was to have succeeded Dr Mahathir as prime minister of the PH government and the timeline of the handover was being discussed when defections and plotting by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin led to the collapse of PH in late February. – TMI