Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad said a vote of no confidence should be held in Parliament to determine if Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin still has the majority support to lead the government.
Tun Dr Mahathir said yesterday that with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi affirming that "many" Umno MPs now support opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Tan Sri Muhyiddin's razor-thin majority would have been erased.
Parliament should also vote to decide who has majority support as prime minister, he said, rather than calling for a fresh general election amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
"Since Tan Sri Muhyiddin was sworn in as prime minister, I have asked for a vote of no confidence to be held in Parliament to solve this problem," Dr Mahathir said in a statement, referring to questions over Mr Muhyiddin's majority when he became premier in March.
"If this can be done, then we can avoid having a general election at a time when we are still battling the Covid-19 pandemic."
Dr Mahathir said this following Datuk Seri Anwar's claim on Wednesday that he had a "convincing and formidable" majority to form a government.
Until Mr Anwar's claim, Mr Muhyiddin was said to have 113 MPs backing him, with 109 supporting the opposition.
Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid, responding on Wednesday to Mr Anwar's claims, said he was aware that "many" MPs from Umno and the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition now backed the opposition chief.
Said Dr Mahathir: "If we accept that Zahid's statement is true and is based on his position as Umno and BN chief, this means Muhyiddin can no longer stress he has a solid majority to be the PM. The important thing now is to study whether the PM still has the majority to remain in his position. Whether Anwar has a majority or not is a separate issue that he (Anwar) will need to prove."
The political buzz yesterday was that some 15 Umno lawmakers who supported Mr Muhyiddin are now with Mr Anwar.
As Mr Anwar did not reveal their names, politicians joined other Malaysians yesterday in guessing who these party hoppers could be.
The Malaysian King, Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin, remained in hospital for a third day yesterday with an unspecified ailment, thwarting Mr Anwar's plan to see him and present his list of supporting MPs.
Mr Muhyiddin on Wednesday issued a statement to say he remains the prime minister until Mr Anwar proves through constitutional processes that he has majority support.
Mr Muhyiddin flew back to Sabah on Wednesday to resume campaigning for tomorrow's state polls.
The claim by Mr Anwar, though, has reverberated in his own Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition of three parties. Some of PH's members have fought against Umno for decades.
Though Mr Zahid has opened the door for Umno MPs to support Mr Anwar, PH's Democratic Action Party (DAP) has indicated it may not be keen to participate in such an arrangement.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said he had been under the impression that lawmakers from Gabungan Party Sarawak (GPS) - instead of Umno - would join the proposed new government.
He said Mr Anwar informed him about the plan only moments before the bombshell announcement. "He gave the impression that he had GPS supporting him to have a comfortable majority," Mr Lim was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini news site.
