Malaysian PM Delays NoConfidence Vote Citing Virus Battle, Mahathir Cries Foul

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will not face a confidence vote on May 18 as earlier scheduled, the Speaker of Parliament said on Wednesday, a decision denounced by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as a possible sign of Tan Sri Muhyiddin lacking a parliamentary majority.

“Parliament is not allowed to convene, which means Muhyiddin does not have majority support,” Mr Mahathir said in a video message on Facebook.

“It looks like there is an attempt to block me from even speaking as a Member of Parliament.”

The next session of Parliament has been set for July 13 to August 27, but no date has been given for a confidence vote. People close to Mr Muhyiddin’s ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance say they have a majority among the 222 MPs. Last week, the Speaker approved a motion seeking a vote of no confidence in Mr Muhyiddin’s leadership brought by 94-yearold Mr Mahathir, who had resigned as prime minister in February as his ruling coalition fell apart because of political wrangling.

But Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said in a statement on Wednesday that Mr Muhyiddin later informed him that the government had decided to list only one order of parliamentary business for the day, the opening address by the King, “as the COVID-19 pandemic has not been fully cleared”.

Mr Muhyiddin, a former colleague of both Mr Mahathir and Datuk Seri Anwar, was unexpectedly sworn in on March 1 as prime minister with the support of Umno, which was defeated by the multi-ethnic Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the last general election in 2018.

Since then, Parliament has not held a single session as the the coronavirus led to Malaysia imposing movement restrictions.

The country has so far reported 6779 coronavirus patients, with 111 deaths.

Reuters, The Star, ANN