Abdul Shukor Ahmad said democracy demands that Muhyiddin prove his majority support either to the King or in the Dewan Rakyat.
“Last week, Muhyiddin announced that he still enjoys support and will convene a Dewan Rakyat sitting in September.
“However, that sitting must be held sooner than later due to prevailing circumstances,” he told FMT.
Shukor said this in response to the documents dated July 30 and Aug 4 published on Umno’s website yesterday.
In the first letter, Zahid informed the King that he wished to present several statutory declarations (SDs) from Barisan Nasional MPs who had decided to withdraw support for Muhyiddin as prime minister with immediate effect.
In the second letter, Zahid expressed his wish to present additional SDs from more BN MPs withdrawing their support for the Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government.
“These additional SDs are an extension to my previous letter, which mentioned that more would follow,” he wrote.
Zahid also wrote that 14 MPs had signed SDs to withdraw support for PN and Muhyiddin so far, attaching copies of each signed document.
Shukor said the revelation of SDs also called into question the truth of Muhyiddin’s statement that he still commands majority support.
“Based on the existing power-sharing formula and taking into account the defectors, the prime minister no longer enjoys the support of at least 111 MPs,” he said.
He said failure to convene a Dewan Rakyat sitting before September could pave the way for the King to rely on extraneous methods, a legal principle established in the case of the Perak menteri besar.
This includes interviewing MPs and receiving SDs or letters of support for the King to make a judgment call.
Meanwhile, lawyer Americk Sidhu said the SDs appeared to be invalid in law as they did not conform with provisions in the Statutory Declarations Act.
“They do not follow the prescribed format and weren’t attested by a lawyer, which is a violation of the Act,” he told FMT in a text message.
Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali said, however, that any defects in the SDs were peripheral as the intention of those who signed them was clear.
“The SDs fit the extraneous circumstances,” he said, adding that in the Perak crisis, assemblymen had merely provided letters to inform the sultan that they no longer supported Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as menteri besar.
The Federal Court in 2010 ruled that the sultan was right to sack Nizar and appoint Barisan Nasional’s Zambry Abdul Kadir as the new menteri besar.
The sultan had interviewed all 59 assemblymen, and received letters and SDs to conclude that Nizar no longer enjoyed the support of the majority to remain in his position.