Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced that a vote of confidence to determine his legitimacy will be held in Parliament when the House reconvenes in September.
The announcement was made in a special televised address to the nation at 12:30pm, after he completed his weekly audience with the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, at the palace this morning. This comes after at least 11 MPs were understood to have signed statutory declarations to the King, indicating that they were withdrawing their support for the prime minister. Muhyiddin mentioned only eight in today’s address without naming them.
“During the audience, I presented to the King that I’ve received a number of statutory declarations from MPs, convincing me that the majority of the lower parliament house members still support me. Therefore, the issue of my resignation under Article 43(4) (of the federal constitution) is not raised,” said Muhyiddin in front of the camera with his fellow cabinet ministers. Some ministers from the UMNO party, including vaccine coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin, were not with him.
Muhyiddin later added: “I’m aware that my position as prime minister has been questioned many times. Therefore, I presented to the king that I will determine my majority as prime minister in Parliament.”
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The prime minister broke his silence to the people today, after days of protests from Malaysians calling on him to resign, starting with the Black Flag demonstration on July 17 and the “Lawan” protest on Saturday, followed by the march by opposition politicians on Monday and a gathering of senators yesterday. UMNO, which is the largest party under Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional government, announced yesterday that it was formally withdrawing support.
Ahead of Muhyiddin’s speech today, reporters sighted top officials attending a secret meeting at a hotel last night, and the prime minister visiting the royal palace this morning.
Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani was also seen arriving at Putrajaya’s Perdana Putra complex, which houses the prime minister’s office, at 9.20am, followed by defence forces chief Affendi Buang.
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