BARISAN Nasional (BN) chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said at present there was no negotiation with Perikatan Nasional (PN) or Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to form a federal government.

“All BN parliamentarians who won in the general election have signed an agreement giving me the mandate as chairman to decide on any coalition government.”

“Any member of parliament who disobeys the party directive runs the risk of losing their party membership and their parliamentary seat as stated in the anti-hopping law,” he said in a brief statement tonight.

The statement comes after GPS announced it was forming a coalition with Perikatan Nasional (PN), BN and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) to form the Federal government..

The GPS chairman said the coalition wanted a federal government that would be strong and stable to face the coming economic challenges, while at the same time protecting the well-being of the people, including their religious freedom.

“Our choice for Prime Minister is Muhyiddin Yassin,” the Sarawak Premier told a press conference in Kuching today.

However, soon after that Muhyiddin Yassin declared that he was confident that he would garner enough support among the members of parliament which would pave the way for the King to appoint him as the country’s 10th prime minister.

He said GPS chairman Abang Johari Openg, had expressed his willingness to back him in PN’s quest to form a federal government.

“I also met with GRS chairman Hajiji Noor who said the Sabah coalition will back PN and give me its support to be the 10th Prime Minister,” he said in a statement.

Muhyiddin said several other lawmakers had also given him the same commitment.

However, in his statement, he did not mention BN which GPS had earlier said was forming a coalition to form the Federal government.

Without BN, a combination of PN, GPS, and GRS would only have 101 seats in Parliament.

BN counts 30 lawmakers among its ranks.

The coalition would still be short of 11 seats for a simple majority of 112 seats within parliament’s 222 seat chamber. – November 20, 2022.