Following the appointment of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the new prime minister, Pakatan Harapan is convinced that its prime minister candidate Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has the numbers to form a government instead.
Parti Amanah Negara deputy president Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub said to prove this, Pakatan Harapan was currently compiling evidence of support in the form of statutory declarations (SDs) to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong soon.
“My friends in PH and I are currently compiling all the evidence from the SDs to submit to the Agong.
“We are confident that we have the numbers and we will prove it through the SDs that we have received that we support Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,” he told the media at Eastin Hotel today.
“We intend to appeal. There’s no deadline to appeal but we will try,” he added.
Following that, Salahuddin said PH would hold a meeting at Yayasan Al Bukhary in Kuala Lumpur soon.
“We will look at all the rules and the constitution to see what we can do about this.”
He said PH commanded around 112 votes among the Members of Parliament as of 4pm today.
PH had been confident earlier today that Dr Mahathir had the numbers, after he, as well as Bersatu Youth chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, broke ranks with the party to nominate Muhyiddin. They also denied signing any statutory declaration to support the Bersatu president.
Anwar was also confident earlier that Dr Mahathir would have the numbers, in anticipation of more Bersatu MPs switching allegiance. SUPP’s Richard Riot had also switched sides to join PKR.
Sabah parties Warisan (9) and Upko (1) had also announced support for Dr Mahathir.
All this would have brought support for Dr Mahathir to at least 105 MPs.
Muhyiddin’s support, meanwhile, would have stood at 96 MPs from those in Bersatu who did not switch, Umno, PAS and ex-PKR MPs under Mohamed Azmin Ali.
The wild card was Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) 18 MPs.
The party initially said it would only declare its official position tomorrow, but party’s parliamentary whip Fadillah Yusof was at Muhyiddin’s house this morning and went to the palace with the Bersatu leader’s entourage.