PAKATAN Harapan today announced its common framework to woo voters for the coming general election but admitted they have yet to decide on who will be the coalition’s interim prime minister.

“Thank you for the concern. That issue is still being discussed,” PH secretariat chief Saifuddin Abdullah coyly told reporters when asked this at a press conference today.

Pushed further, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said whoever the candidate is, that person will definitely be much better than the current prime minister.

The interim prime minister’s slot is a toss up between Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president Muhyiddin Yassin and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Prominent lawyer Zaid Ibrahim, however, in his blogpost today suggested PH name Bersatu chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the interim PM.

Zaid said for PH to have a realistic chance of winning GE14, they have to make Dr Mahathir as their candidate for prime minister.

“To do this, PH members must swallow their pride, knock some sense into their heads and persuade Dr Mahathir to be the prime minister of the new Government,” he said in his blog.

When asked of Zaid’s proposal, Saifuddin Abdullah said they will take note of it..

PH recently released their list of office bearers and Mahathir was named as adviser without executive powers.

Speaking on the common framework, Saifuddin said PH is now ready to formally engage with all stakeholders.

“We did that before but it was not done formally. Now we are ready to approach civil society, academia, think tanks and everyone who wants to engage with us,” he said.

He said that the PH secretariat is still gathering ideas from international reports and civil society groups to add value into the framework to prepare itself to face the coming general election.

“There are many issues that we need to address. Although there are concerns about the issues surrounding 1MDB, the majority are more worried about the cost of living issues,” Saifuddin added. – May 9, 2017.