Subject to the party leadership’s final confirmation, UMNO’s top contenders for the post are former deputy prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, veteran lawmaker Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former senior minister Hishammuddin Hussein, according to a Reuters report citing an analyst.
Malaysian media also reported that efforts have been ongoing since last Sunday to collect signed statutory declarations (SDs) from various MPs to support Mr Ismail Sabri as prime minister.
Mr Ismail Sabri was appointed by Mr Muhyiddin as his deputy last month, in one of the latter’s attempts to ease growing tensions with a group of UMNO’s MPs led by party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Mr Ismail Sabri, 61, is believed to be the choice for Mr Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition which has the backing of about 100 MPs in the 222-member parliament.
A former UMNO minister, Mr Nazri Aziz, was reported as saying by the Star last Sunday that he had signed an SD endorsing Mr Ismail Sabri to be the next prime minister.
Among UMNO MPs who support the PN coalition, there are also those who think that Mr Hishammuddin, the foreign minister, is a potential candidate who can command the necessary majority, especially among MPs from the coalition.
Mr Hishammuddin, 60, together with Mr Ismail Sabri, was among the group of about 20 UMNO MPs who decided to stick with PN despite the announcement by Ahmad Zahid in early August that the party’s supreme council had decided to withdraw its support for Mr Muhyiddin’s government.
The decision which led to 15 UMNO MPs withdrawing their support for the government drew further demands from Mr Muhyiddin’s opponents, who stated that he needed to prove in parliament that he still had the majority.
Instead of giving their support to Mr Ismail Sabri or Mr Hishammuddin, UMNO MPs who had gone separate ways from PN are said to be keen that Tengku Razaleigh, a former minister and UMNO veteran, be considered by the king as possible successor to Mr Muhyiddin.
According to UMNO sources, the 84-year-old Gua Musang MP would be one of the names to be submitted by the UMNO faction led by Ahmad Zahid.
Tengku Razaleigh or Ku Li, as he is popularly known, has held several ministerial posts in his long career of nearly 50 years as MP.
The sources quoted by the Star said that UMNO supreme council’s decision on its choice of prime minister candidate would indicate that the Kelantanese veteran politician as its preferred choice.
Seen as a compromise candidate between the UMNO factions, Tengku Razaleigh’s name has been frequently mentioned by UMNO grassroots as a possible interim prime minister pending a new general election if no candidate can be identified as Mr Muhyiddin’s successor.
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2021-08-17 07:36:06Z
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