King has less than 48 hours to remove PM
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong only has about 48 hours to remove Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
After midnight tomorrow, the emergency ordinance will be over, thereby limiting and weakening the powers granted to Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah under the current emergency proclamation, that allows the king wide-ranging powers to even remove his prime minister.
(The Vibes) – So, what can the king do?
The clearest and most obvious step is to summon all MPs individually to Istana Negara as soon as possible to determine if Muhyiddin still has the backing of the majority of the House.
This would be the best barometer, as it is the next best step to a no-confidence motion in the Dewan Rakyat, which is expected to be blocked by Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun.
At the moment, Muhyiddin seems to command the support of 114 MPs to the opposition’s 105.
However, one must take into account that Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has clearly said many times that his party does not support the Bersatu president but is only backing the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration.
Should Umno’s 37 MPs pull support from the Pagoh MP, it can effectively nullify Muhyiddin’s administration.
On the other hand, should Umno’s cluster of ministers and deputy ministers continue to prop up this ailing government, it will leave the party with 22 MPs who can still comfortably remove Muhyiddin from office.
The Vibes had reported that it only takes five Umno MPs breaking away from PN to dissolve the current administration.
However, this would still leave the opposition in less than a firm position to form a government, seeing that it only commands between 109 and 110 MPs.
