Malaysian PM banks on victory in Borneo poll

Locked in a power struggle with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian PM Muhyiddin Yassin needs a solid victory in a state election on the island of Borneo on Saturday to stop support within his coalition parties melting away, analysts say.

Anwar ignited political fireworks on Wednesday with the bold claim that he had the backing of nearly two-thirds of the 222 lawmakers in Malaysia's parliament and would be asking the king to install him as prime minister in place of Muhyiddin.

Muhyiddin's nearly

7month-old coalition has survived with a wafer-thin majority, and allies have pressured him to seek an early election to secure a strong mandate, rather than wait for a national poll not due until 2023.

Since he came to power, the Southeast Asian nation has been consumed with fighting the coronavirus crisis, relying on the government to bolster its badly hit exportled economy, and the latest bout of political wrangling could hinder those efforts.

The state election in Sabah, where his party is in an opposition coalition, will be Muhyiddin's first test at the ballot box. While Anwar's own party is a relatively minor player in the Sabah election, a regional party friendly to his Pakatan Harapan bloc will be the obstacle to Muhyiddin's allies.

The Sabah contest won't directly decide the fate of the federal government, but it could give Muhyiddin a foretaste of how he might fare if the king denies Anwar's request to be given the premiership, and instead tells the politicians to sort it out through a national election.

The king, Sultan Abdullah, cancelled an audience with Anwar earlier this week due to ill health, and the opposition leader is still waiting for a re-scheduled appointment.