KUALA LUMPUR: The leaders of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) back Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Malaysia’s 8th Prime Minister.
The group communicated this to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, during their audience with His Majesty today.
GPS Parliamentary chief whip Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof informed reporters of the Sarawak political coalition’s stand on the matter.
“I wrote down the name of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as my choice for Prime Minister.
“There was no discussion, (we) only had to fill in a form on who (our) choice for the Prime Minister is,” he told members of the media as he left Istana Negara here, this afternoon.
Fadillah was among 90 federal lawmakers who had an audience with the King to inform His Majesty of who they support in the formation of the next government.
GPS MPs were among the 90 MPs who were called to have an audience with the Agong.
Each MP was given between 2 and 3 minutes for a personal interview by the King.
The tussle among the nation’s political parties on the formation of the next government was brought about by the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ruling government on Monday.
It followed Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and its 26 federal lawmakers quitting the coalition.
This was further compounded by 11 PKR MPs quitting the PH component party.
PH’s majority, which stood at 129 on Sunday, was reduced to a minority of 92 in the 222 strong Dewan Rakyat on Monday following the exit and expulsion of 37 Bersatu and PKR federal lawmakers.