Dr Mahathir says he has majority support to be the next PM

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister in waiting Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad clarified today that he only needs the support of the majority members of Parliament to be the prime minister and form a government but nevertheless, he and the leaders of the four parties under Pakatan Harapan (PH) have written and signed a letter to the Yang Di Pertuan Agong to install him as the nation's seventh Prime Minister by today.
"Pakatan Harapan leaders have written a letter and signed it to send to the YDP Agong declaring that they support the candidate Dr Mahathir as the next prime minister of the country," he said at a press conference earlier.
He said that there is a lack of understanding with regards to the constitution.
"The delay is due to the lack of understanding of the constitution, the constitution states that you only need majority support from Members of Parliament. The majority has the right to name the prime minister," he said.
With that Mahathir said PH had asked all members of Parliament, including DAP and Party Warisan in Sabah to sign the letter which would give him the majority.
"Together with Warisan and a few parties in Sabah that have joined us, we have well over 135 seats to form the government," he explained.
He said that the confusion came because palace officials thought that PH was only Parti Keadilan Rakyat and their leader is Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
"He (the agung) wasn't very clear as to who was leading the party. We contested using Keadilan. Agung was under the impression that only Keadilan was contesting, so they invited Wan Azizah. This confusion happens in politics," he said.
Mahathir said that there cannot be any delay in the swearing-in, as the country currently does not have a government until the Prime Minister is installed.
"We need to form the government today because there is no government at the moment. We hope that by 5pm today the swearing-in will take place and we will form a new government under Pakatan Harapan," he said.
"Any delay will mean we have no government which means we have no law and constitution and we have no institutions that uphold the rule of law and government," he added.
He said that the government needs to be formed immediately to start cleaning up the mess in the country.
"We need to have this government today without delay. There is a lot of work to be done. The country is in a mess and we need to attend to this mess," he said.