Malaysia election just around the corner, potential PM candidate says

Name: Mahathir Mohamad on Malaysia’s politics, US-China relations and the pandemic
Uploaded: 2020-07-14T11:00:14.000Z
Duration: 28 min 52 s
Description: Mahathir Mohamad on Malaysia’s politics, US-China relations and the pandemic

Shafie Apdal says the opposition is gearing up for snap polls after a crucial vote in the lower house showed Muhyiddin may lack a parliamentary majority

Malaysia has been grappling with political uncertainty since Muhyiddin was unexpectedly made PM in March by forging an alliance with Najib’s Umno

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal. Photo: Bloomberg

Reuters

Published: 7:00pm, 14 Jul 2020Updated: 7:02pm, 14 Jul 2020

Malaysia’s opposition is preparing for early elections after a crucial vote in the lower house this week showed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin may lack a parliamentary majority, said Shafie Apdal, a potential rival for the premiership.

Muhyiddin on Monday succeeded in his bid to replace the speaker of parliament’s lower house by a margin of two votes. But he fell one vote short of a simple majority with only half of the 222 lawmakers in the house voting for his motion.

“It is not even a simple majority. It is clear that it is a hung parliament,” Shafie told a group of reporters on Tuesday.

“Elections are not far away, it’s just around the corner,” he said, anticipating Malaysia would hold a national election well before it falls due in 2023.

He said the tabling and parliamentary vote on the 2021 budget in November would be another crucial test for the government.

Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy has been grappling with political uncertainty since Muhyiddin was unexpectedly made prime minister in March by forging an alliance with the graft-tainted Umno party that was defeated in a 2018 election.

28:52

Mahathir Mohamad on Malaysia’s politics, US-China relations and the pandemic