5 party leaders meet ahead of audiences with Agong

(FMT) – Top leaders of five parties are meeting today ahead of their audiences with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong today, FMT has learnt.

This followed a closed-door meeting by Umno and PAS leaders late last night at the Umno headquarters here.

It is understood that the presidents of Umno, PAS, PPBM, Sabah’s Warisan and Sarawak’s GPS are strategising a political compromise among them, as political blocks scramble to get a majority position to fill the vacuum created by the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government.

The five party presidents are Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Umno), Abdul Hadi Awang (PAS), Muhyiddin Yassin (PPBM), Shafie Apdal (Warisan) and Abang Johari Openg (GPS).

The Agong, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, has agreed to meet MPs from separate parties in batches today.

It is understood that the series of meetings at Istana Negara will start with GPS, followed by PAS, and then Umno, at around 1pm today.

“The five leaders are expected to hold a joint press conference later today,” the source told FMT.

FMT has learnt that during last night’s meeting involving Barisan Nasional MPs, Khairy Jamaluddin and Nazri Aziz were not present.

“Where the two stand, we are not sure. They could possibly be among the floating MPs,” the source added.

Shocking developments since Sunday ended yesterday with the collapse of Pakatan Harapan, the four-member coalition led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad which came to power in May 2018.

Mahathir’s resignation yesterday came after a day of political manoeuvres among MPs from PPBM, Umno, PAS and others intent on forming a new coalition to take power.

He also resigned as the chairman of PPBM, which has since announced it is no longer part of PH.

Meanwhile, PKR’s parliamentary strength also took a blow after its deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali and vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin were sacked.

This was followed by nine of its MPs quitting the party and forming an independent block.