OPPOSITION Leader Anwar Ibrahim has been granted an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah next Tuesday, giving him the opportunity to back his claim of having the majority support to form a new government.

In a statement issued by Anwar’s office today, the PKR president said he had been granted an audience to meet the King on October 13.

“Alhamdulillah I am grateful to Allah because with His bounty and permission His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has recovered from the recent illness.

“I would like to express my gratitude to His Majesty for granting me an audience to meet on Tuesday, October 13,” said Anwar.

“At the meeting, I will present documentation of the strong and convincing majority of MPs as I mentioned earlier,” said the 73-year-old politician.

On September 23, Anwar held a press conference to announce he had garnered sufficient MP support to back his bid to replace Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister.

“I have a strong, formidable and convincing majority to form the government.

“I have full support, that is convincing from the parliamentarians, to present to the Agong. The majority support is from Malay-Muslim parliamentarians.

“With the firm majority… Muhyiddin’s government has fallen,” said the Port Dickson MP then.

Anwar was, however, unable to meet Sultan Abdullah after the latter was admitted to the hospital following a bout of food poisoning.

The Perikatan Nasional government, which consists of Bersatu (31), PAS (18), STAR (1), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (18), Barisan Nasional (43), Parti Bersatu Sabah (1) and one independent, has 113 MPs in the 222-member Dewan Rakyat. 

Anwar, meanwhile, is supported by 91 MPs consisting of PKR (38), DAP (42) and Amanah (11).

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Pejuang (5), Mohd Shafie Apdal’s Warisan (10 including Upko), Parti Sarawak Bersatu (2) and Muda (1) have not stated their stand on who they are supporting. – October 8, 2020.