Malaysia’s election uncertainty deepened yesterday after a political bloc refused to support either reformist leader Anwar Ibrahim or rival Malay nationalist Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister, three days after divisive polls produced no outright winner.
The stalemate put the spotlight on the nation’s ceremonial king, who will have to find a way to resolve the impasse.
Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope, topped Saturday’s elections with 83 parliamentary seats, but failed to reach the 112 needed for a majority.
Photo: AFP
He has been locked in a battle to form a majority government with former prime minister Muhyiddin, whose Malay-centric Perikatan Nasional, or National Alliance, won 72 seats.
Muhyiddin gained an upper hand after securing support of lawmakers from two states on Borneo island, but both rivals still need the backing of the long-ruling alliance led by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) for a majority.
Caretaker Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a senior UMNO official, said the highest-decision making body of UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN), or National Front alliance, decided at a meeting yesterday not to support any group to form a government.
“So far, BN has agreed to remain as the opposition,” he tweeted.
Malaysia’s monarch, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, asked lawmakers to state their preferred choice for prime minister and coalition by 2pm. The king’s role is largely ceremonial, but he appoints the person he believes has majority support in Parliament as prime minister.
After the deadline passed, the king found no lawmaker with majority support to be the next prime minister, the palace said in a statement.
Sultan Abdullah summoned Anwar and Muhyiddin to the palace, it said, without giving further details.
The monarch urged the people to be patient and calm until he decides.
“We have to move on ... we need to move forward for our beloved nation,” the monarch earlier told reporters waiting outside the palace.
Muhyiddin’s bloc includes a hard-line Islamic ally, stoking fears of right-wing politics that may deepen racial divides in the multiethnic nation if it comes to power. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party was the biggest winner with a haul of 49 seats, more than double what it won in 2018. Known as PAS, it touts Shariah, rules three states and is now the single largest party.
His alliance said it has already sent more than 112 sworn oaths by lawmakers to the king. UMNO, however, warned that individual support of its lawmakers without the party’s approval is invalid.
Malaysia has had three prime ministers since 2018 polls. In early 2020, Muhyiddin abandoned Anwar’s ruling alliance, causing its collapse, and joined hands with UMNO to form a new government.
Additional reporting by AP
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
RSS