THE National Palace has given all prime minister aspirants 24 hours to put forth their names should they have the numbers to form a government.
Comptroller of the Royal Household Datuk Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said the National Palace was informed about the results of yesterday’s (Nov 19) polls in the wee hours of today morning.
As confirmed by documents submitted by Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh, no single political party has gotten a simple majority of 112 seats to form the next government.
Accordingly, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah decreed that the National Palace seek Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan’s assistance to request all heads of political parties and coalitions who have the most number of federal seats to inform the National Palace about any pacts they have made to form a government.
These heads of political parties and political coalitions will also be requested by Azhar to put forth the name of one soon-to-be-sworn-in MP who has gotten the confidence of a majority of the house as a result of said pacts to become their prime minister candidate.
The National Palace must be informed about this by 2pm tomorrow (Nov 20), Ahmad Fadil said in a statement issued just after 2pm today.
“In line with Articles 40(2)(a) and 43(2)(a) of the Federal Constitution, it is also informed that His Majesty’s decree and decision relating to the formation of a new government and appointment of a prime minister through processes that have been explained is final,” he added.
Ahmad Fadil added that Sultan Abdullah has reminded the rakyat and all heads of political parties to abide by and respect the democratic process, as well as accept the results of the 15th General Elections (GE15) in a calm and relieved manner.
This is to protect national integrity as the country can be considered to be an estate whereby public leaders are its trustees.
“We need a stable, authoritative government”
“His Majesty also issued a reminder about the need for a government that is stable, authoritative and full of integrity to protect the welfare of the rakyat and spearhead the agenda of national peace,” he added.
Parliament is currently hung as no single party or coalition yesterday won the 112 seats required for a simple majority.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) has the most number of seats so far (82), followed by Perikatan Nasional/PN (73), Barisan Nasional/BN (30) and “kingmaker” Gabungan Parti Sarawak/GPS (22), and political horse-trading is ongoing to form a multi-coalition government by hook or by crook.
Meanwhile, a group of legal experts, human rights activists and national patriots said since PH has secured the largest number of votes, going by convention, it should be given the first choice of eliciting support from other parties to form the government.
“(In the event of a hung Parliament), the party (which includes a coalition of parties) with the highest number of seats will first be asked by the king to form the government,” they explained in a statement today.
“It is then up to that party to get any other party to agree to join it, thus, obtaining a sufficient number of seats to secure a majority of the members of the Dewan Rakyat.”
The statement was signed off by lawyer Datuk Gurdial S. Nijar; former Federal Court judge Tan Sri Zainun Ali; former Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof; former Bar Council presidents Datuk Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Datuk Yeo Yang Poh and Christopher Leong; Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) commissioner Ragunath Kesavan; activist Ivy Josiah and; Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan (PATRIOT). – Nov 20, 2022
Main photo credit: Bernama
