KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will resign on Monday, news portal MalaysiaKini reported, after he lost his majority due to infighting in the ruling coalition.
The resignation, if confirmed, would end a tumultuous 17 months in office for Muhyiddin but also bring more uncertainty to Malaysia as the country grapples with a COVID-19 surge and economic downturn.
It was not immediately clear who could form the next government as no lawmaker has a clear majority in parliament, or if elections could be held in Malaysia amid the pandemic.
It would be up to the constitutional monarch, King Al-Sultan Abdullah, to decide what happens next.
Muhyiddin will submit his resignation to the king on Monday, according to Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, a minister in the prime minister’s department, Malaysiakini reported on Sunday.
Reuters could not immediately reach Mohd Redzuan. The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond.
Mohd Redzuan said Muhyiddin informed party members of his decision to resign as he had exhausted all other options to sustain the government.
“Tomorrow, there will be a special cabinet meeting. After that, he will head to (the palace) to submit his resignation,” Mohd Redzuan told Malaysiakini.
Muhyiddin’s grip on power has been precarious since he came to power in March 2020 with a slim majority. Pressure on him mounted recently after some lawmakers from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party — the largest bloc in the ruling alliance — withdrew support.
The premier had for weeks defied calls to quit and said he would prove his majority in parliament through a confidence vote in September.
But on Friday, Muhyiddin admitted for the first time he did not have a majority and made a last ditch effort to woo the opposition by promising political and electoral reforms in exchange for support on the confidence vote. The offer was unanimously rejected.
The king has the constitutional power to appoint a prime minister from among elected lawmakers based on who he thinks can command a majority. He picked Muhyiddin as premier last year after the unexpected resignation of Mahathir Mohamad.
Malaysia PM Muhyiddin Yassin to resign on Monday — report
https://arab.news/2g8cc
Malaysia PM Muhyiddin Yassin to resign on Monday — report
- The resignation, if confirmed, would end a tumultuous 17 months in office for Muhyiddin
Germany’s Merz urges ‘peaceful coexistence’ a year after deadly market attack
- The market attack happened during campaigning for legislative elections — one of several carried out by migrants that fed into a fierce debate about immigration and security in Germany
MAGDEBURG, Germany: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday called for “peaceful coexistence” as the country marked the first anniversary of a deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in eastern Germany.
Merz addressed a church ceremony in the city of Magdeburg, where the December 20, 2024, attack killed six and wounded more than 300 others.
“May we all find, today in this commemoration, comfort and peaceful coexistence, especially as Christmas approaches,” he told those gathered at the Protestant Johanniskirche (St. John’s Church), near the site of the attack.
Germany was still “a country where we show unconditional solidarity — especially when injustice prevails — standing shoulder to shoulder wherever violence erupts,” he added.
While the market reopened on November 20, guarded by armed police and protected by concrete barricades, it remained closed on Saturday out of respect to the victims of last year’s attack.
Saudi man Taleb Jawad Al-Abdulmohsen, 51, is currently on trial for the attack. He has admitted to plowing a rented SUV through the crowd in an attack prosecutors say was inspired by a mix of personal grievances, far-right and anti-Islam views.
Merz’s speech came eight months before regional elections, with the far-right AfD riding high in opinion polls in Saxony-Anhalt state, of which Magdeburg is the capital.
The market attack happened during campaigning for legislative elections — one of several carried out by migrants that fed into a fierce debate about immigration and security in Germany.
On December 13, German police said they had arrested five men suspected of planning a similar vehicle attack on a Christmas market in the southern state of Bavaria.
Police and prosecutors said they had detained an Egyptian, three Moroccans and a Syrian over the alleged plot.
