KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition and interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad are trying to garner support from East Malaysian parliamentarians.
PKR secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said this was what the coalition was doing at the moment.
He also confirmed that the PH bloc had agreed to nominate Dr Mahathir as the coalition’s prime minister candidate.
He said Dr Mahathir was also vying for the support of Parti Warisan Sabah and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) members of parliament (MPs) to achieve majority votes.
“Our (PH) commitment towards Tun (Dr Mahathir) as the biggest bloc will have 92 MPs.
“The next process is to gain support from (Parti) Warisan (Sabah) and GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) which will be handled by Tun and us, so will continue to update the MPs,” he said when met by reporters at the lobby of the Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya, here.
Saifuddin said he had met with Dr Mahathir in his capacity as a PKR representative earlier this morning.
Later, he met with DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and agreed with the decision to announce Dr Mahathir as the PM candidate instead.
He said he has been updating all 39 PKR MPs by the minute on the latest political development.
Just minutes after the media met with Saifuddin, PKR announced on social media that GPS’ Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem, who is Serian MP officially joined PKR.
A separate statement by PKR communications head Fahmi Fadzil said Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who is Keningau MP had officially thrown his support for Dr Mahathir.
"Jeffrey Kitingan has agreed to openly support Dr Mahathir as a PM candidate," said the statement.