KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Supreme Council will convene for an extraordinary meeting at 3pm today at the PAS headquarters in the city.
PN — the main Opposition bloc — is expected to appoint a new chairman on Sunday, nearly two months after Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin resigned from the post.
PAS is touted to take over the reins from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) as the leader of the coalition and has reportedly obtained the approval of other members Gerakan and the Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP).
Bersatu has led PN since the coalition’s inception in February 2020, after the ouster of the first Pakatan Harapan government that made Muhyiddin the country’s eighth prime minister.
However, PAS remains the lynchpin of PN as it controls 43 seats in the Dewan Rakyat and is the single largest party in the august house.
The Islamist party also helms the Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu state governments.
Meanwhile, Bersatu had 25 parliamentary seats, but following the latest round of expulsions, the party is down to 21 seats. It has also led the Perlis state government since December 2025.
A leadership fallout transpired in PN after five Bersatu assemblymen and three from PAS withdrew their support for the PAS-led government in Perlis last December.
While PAS immediately sacked the three assemblymen involved, Bersatu did not do so, although the party’s leadership denied any role in orchestrating the ouster.
The new Perlis state government was subsequently led by Kuala Perlis assemblyman and Bersatu member, Abu Bakar Hamzah.
Muhyiddin stepped down as PN chairman on January 1, followed by the coalition secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, to ease escalating tensions between PAS and Bersatu after the Perlis debacle.
Muhyiddin also mooted to abolish the chairman post as part of a structural overhaul in PN but PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang flatly rejected the idea.
Bersatu, already mired in a months-long internal strife, finally sacked its deputy president Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin and 16 party leaders aligned with him last Friday.
