Malaysian PM delays confidence vote, says coronavirus battle takes priority

KUALA LUMPUR, May 13, 2020, Reuters. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will not face a confidence vote on May 18 as earlier scheduled, the Speaker of Parliament said on Wednesday (May 13) after the government cited the battle against the coronavirus as a priority, The Straits Times reported.

Last week, the Speaker approved a motion seeking a vote of no confidence in Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s leadership brought by 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, who had resigned as prime minister in February as his ruling coalition fell apart because of political wrangling.

But Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said in a statement that Mr Muhyiddin later informed him that the government had decided to list only one order of parliamentary business for the day, the opening address by the King, “as the Covid-19 pandemic has not been fully cleared”.

The next meeting of Parliament has been set for July 13 to Aug 27, but no date has been given for the confidence vote.

People close to the ruling coalition say they have a majority among the 222 elected Members of Parliament.

An aide to Tun Dr Mahathir said he would not immediately comment on the development. The office of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he would address the matter during a Facebook Live session on Thursday.

Mr Muhyiddin, a former colleague of both Dr Mahathir and Datuk Seri Anwar, was unexpectedly sworn in on March 1 as the head of a government formed with the support of a corruption-ridden party that was defeated by a multi-ethnic coalition in the last general election in 2018.

Malaysia has so far reported 6,779 coronavirus patients, with 111 dead.