Malaysia election: Race is on for Anwar and Muhyiddin to form government

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia prime minister hopefuls Anwar Ibrahim and Muhyiddin Yassin have wasted no time in their bids to beef up their ranks after their coalitions ended up neck and neck in Saturday’s vote.

On paper, Pakatan Harapan (PH) chief Anwar has the slight edge, with 82 MPs – including one from the allied Muda – compared with former premier Muhyiddin’s 79 in the country’s first-ever hung Parliament after a general election.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s bloc of seats are from pacts led by his Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia – Perikatan Nasional (PN) with 73, and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, which won another six in the eastern state.

But Mr Muhyiddin appears to have one foot in the door after Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Openg flew to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday morning to meet him and Parti Islam SeMalaysia president Hadi Awang – whose party is now the largest in Parliament – to “discuss the formation of a federal government”.

Tan Sri Johari leads Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), which took 22 of the state’s 31 parliamentary seats.

“Negotiations are also ongoing with other parties that are compatible, and independent MPs,” said Mr Muhyiddin, the PN chief. He had earlier ruled out working with PH.

Datuk Seri Anwar, a former deputy premier, faces a conundrum in unravelling deep-seated enmity between his coalition and the most likely ports of call to achieve a simple majority in the 222-strong Parliament.

Several well-placed sources say that the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president was already trying to hammer out a deal in the early hours of Sunday with GPS, but Mr Johari’s decision to meet Mr Muhyiddin first will be a huge blow to PH’s hopes.

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The Straits Times has learnt that Umno president Zahid Hamidi faced staunch resistance from his party’s top brass to the idea of supporting PH with Barisan Nasional’s (BN) 30 MPs. This would be sufficient for PH to hit the magic number of 112 to control the federal legislature.

Both GPS and BN have long been critical of PH, especially its largest component Democratic Action Party (DAP), which they accuse of undermining the interests of the bumiputera (a term referring to the Malay Muslim majority, and aboriginal natives who form the majority in the Bornean states of Sarawak and Sabah).

Meanwhile, many in PH, even from Mr Anwar’s own PKR have battled for decades to depose Umno, and are especially unwilling to work with Zahid, who is facing a host of graft charges.

Already there are rumblings within Umno to remove Zahid, with caretaker Senior Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said to be leading its parliamentarians in seeking a deal with Mr Muhyiddin. After Umno’s watershed election defeat in 2018, former premier Najib Razak was also forced to step down swiftly.

ST has also learnt that the Palace has issued letters to all key political parties, urging them to form a majority government soonest. Only Mr Muhyiddin had referred to such a letter at his 3am press conference on Sunday, giving the impression that his coalition was steps ahead in forming the government.

Although PH came out of the election battle as the largest bloc, its numbers are still significantly reduced from the 90 MPs it had before Parliament was dissolved on Oct 10.

Despite being the biggest coalition, it had been unable to gather enough allies to form a government since Bersatu defected from the pact in February 2020. Instead, Mr Muhyiddin took over at the helm of government and was later replaced by Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob last year.

How these alliances are forged for the federal Parliament in the coming days will also determine how the parties resolve their impasse in the hung state assemblies of Perak and Pahang.

PN has 26 to PH’s 24 assemblymen in Perak, where 30 is needed for a simple majority. BN holds the remaining nine state seats.

In Pahang, the seat of Tioman will see its delayed election take place on Dec 7, after a candidate died on Saturday. But PN leads BN narrowly by 17 seats to 16 for now, with PH taking eight wins.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.