KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan Tanah Air chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed that Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will be prime minister after the 15th General Election, if Barisan Nasional (BN) wins.
And the promise to let caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob continue to pick up where he left off, would be broken.
"Poor Ismail Sabri. He was promised that he will continue to be Prime Minister if BN wins. Now his allies have not been picked as candidates. He has become weak," he said in a social media post.
The former prime minister said that many believed that Zahid will not honour his promise.
"In the end, the one who will be Prime Minister is Zahid,"
Over the weekend, caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob reaffirmed that he was still the candidate.
However, Perikatan Nasional Arau candidate Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, who was dropped from BN's list of election contestants, said Ismail Sabri should be careful of being taken for a ride.
Shahidan claimed that Umno president Ahmad Zahid was no longer going around saying Ismail Sabri was BN's prime ministerial candidate if the coalition wins.
On Monday, Zahid said that the party's vice-president and caretaker prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was the coalition's sole candidate for prime minister.
He however said the issue should not be discussed as the process to choose a prime minister is not only in the hands of any political party, but also the King.
"We must respect Agong's discretion based on the federal constitution under Article 43," he reportedly said while drawing on the King's prerogative in the appointment of PM.
On Sunday, Ismail Sabri said allegations that one vote for BN was equivalent to a vote for Zahid as PM was a ploy cooked up by the opposition.
He said there had been no changes to BN's choice for prime minister, and any change had to be made by the Umno Supreme Council and at its general assembly.
However Pakatan Harapan has been repeatedly needling Ismail Sabri on this, saying that he was not at the forefront of election campaigns and that the component parties of BN were silent on the subject.