PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today reiterated his promise to step down before his term is up in 2023, to give way to Anwar Ibrahim to take up the post.

“I have made a promise and I will honour it. In the past, when I said I would resign, the opposition said there was no way I would resign, but I did it,” he said after chairing the Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting today.

The issue came to light again after Anwar earlier today said he would not be joining the cabinet.

“I am bound by the (PH) consensus. I never intended to join the cabinet.

“This is because the consensus in PH is (Dr Mahathir) as prime minister and Dr Wan Azizah (Wan Ismail) as deputy prime minister until it is my turn,” he said after an event in Kuala Lumpur.

Yesterday, Dr Mahathir said there was no vacancy for Anwar in the cabinet at the moment as none of the ministers wanted to resign.

“Since nobody has indicated their intention to resign, we have no vacancy.

“When we have a vacancy, we will consider suitable candidates,” the Bersatu chairman had said.

Similarly, Anwar’s wife and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah said there was no vacancy for her husband in the cabinet other than Dr Mahathir’s position.

“Well, there are no cabinet vacancies,” she was reported as telling reporters in Cyberjaya today.

“If the prime minister vacates (his post), that is what was promised, yes?” she said when pressed.

Dr Mahathir had always insisted that he would abide by the PH deal to hand over to Anwar. However, no timeline had been ascertained for the handover, causing much confusion as to when this will actually happen.

In the meantime, there had been calls from within Dr Mahathir’s party Bersatu for him to be allowed to complete this term before Anwar takes over after the next general election. – August 30, 2019.