KUALA LUMPUR – Former Malaysian prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin insisted on Thursday that he commanded majority support of lawmakers in the federal Parliament to lead the government.

He called on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who has just been sworn in as prime minister, to prove that the latter has the support of the majority of MPs to lead the country.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin is head of Perikatan Nasional (PN), the rival coalition that raced with Mr Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the last four days to form the government after the inconclusive general election on Saturday.

Mr Muhyiddin told a news conference that he had 115 statutory declarations (SDs) of MPs backing him as prime minister when he submitted their names on Tuesday to the national palace, as required by Parliament Speaker Azhar Harun.

“For the sake of the confidence of the people, Anwar should prove that he has the support of the majority of members of the Dewan Rakyat (Parliament),” Mr Muhyiddin said.

Sitting beside him at the news conference were the chiefs of PN’s ally parties, including Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang from Parti Islam SeMalaysia and Datuk Dominic Lau from Parti Gerakan.

Mr Muhyiddin gave a breakdown of the lawmakers behind him: 73 MPs from his PN coalition, 22 MPs from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), six from Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, one from Sabah’s Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM), 10 from Barisan Nasional and two independent MPs. GPS later won one more seat at a delayed vote for Baram ward in Sarawak.

“All these documents were sent to Istana Negara at 1.28pm on November 21, which is before the deadline set for parties to send related documents to Istana Negara, as required by the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Mr Muhyiddin said at the news conference.

The BN MPs were believed to have retracted their SDs later, while GPS backtracked by saying it would support the lead governing party picked by the Malaysian King.