'I dare you': Puad challenges Muhyiddin to call up the MPs who ...

Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi has issued a challenge to Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to call up the non PN MPs allegedly backed him as prime minister after the 15th general election publicly confirm the authenticity of the 115 Statutory Declarations (SDs). — Picture by Firdaus Latif

By Malay Mail

Thursday, 22 Aug 2024 11:27 AM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi has issued a challenge to Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to call up the non PN MPs who allegedly backed him as prime minister after the 15th general election publicly confirm the authenticity of the 115 Statutory Declarations (SDs).

“Yesterday, Muhyiddin handed over the 115 Statutory Declarations (SD) from Members of Parliament to the police. However, that is not enough. There needs to be an open verbal confirmation from MPs not affiliated with PN. That is the way to prove the authenticity of the 115 SDs,” he said in a statement posted on Facebook today.

Puad was responding to reports that the former prime minister had submitted documents including 115 SDs yesterday after being quizzed by police over his remarks from the Nenggiri by-election campaign last week.

“Therefore, Muhyiddin is challenged to call upon MPs who are not from PN to openly confirm the authenticity of these SDs. They must publicly declare that they supported Muhyiddin as the 10th prime minister,” said Puad.

Puad said that without confirmation from the non PN MPs, the authenticity of the SDs could not be verified as it could have been manipulated, thereby misleading the public who do not know the “real story”.

He added that only the palace is aware of the “true situation” and that Muhyiddin should apologise to the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin’s representatives provided journalists with a copy of Muhyiddin’s own declaration, in which he said he possessed SDs from lawmakers of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (22), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (six), 10 Barisan Nasional MPs, two independents, and one from Parti KDM.

His coalition also won 74 seats in the 2022 same election. The numbers work out to 115, as he claimed.

The former PM’s representatives did not provide, however, any of the accompanying SDs to the press conference which was held after Muhyiddin was quizzed by the police.

In the TikTok video in which Muhyiddin is alleged to have made the remarks while campaigning for the by-election in Nenggiri, Kelantan, he could be heard claiming he had the support of 115 MPs that, if true, would have enabled him to form the government after the 15th general election.

He then alleged that he was not invited to do so, before pointedly asking the crowd who the Agong was at the time.

Muhyiddin’s PN coalition won 74 seats in GE15.

As no single party or coalition won the election outright, the Agong at the time Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah eventually appointed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister after the latter cobbled together a unity coalition of all Malaysian parties outside of PN.