The Yang di-Pertuan Agong cannot sack a prime minister who has the support of the majority of the House, says constitutional expert Abdul Aziz Bari.

However, the Agong can instruct the Dewan Rakyat speaker to allow a vote of no-confidence to take place and to “stop meddling with the process”, as part of the ruler’s duty to protect the Federal Constitution, Aziz said.

“If we take into account the fact that the constitution has been manipulated and subverted, the Agong has a moral duty to do so (to sack the prime minister).

“Perhaps, to be on the safer side, he may just direct speaker to stop meddling with the process,” he said in an email to Malaysiakini .

Aziz said constitutional scholars refer to the Agong’s ability to move to protect the constitution as “reserve powers”.

“This is the one thing that justifies all his drastic actions,” he said.

This comes after Save Malaysia member and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad urged Malaysians to sign the Citizens’ Declaration calling for the resignation of Najib Abdul Razak as prime minister.

Mahathir said with a million signatures, Save Malaysia can petition the rulers to pressure Najib to leave office.

However, Mahathir acknowledged, the Agong has no power to sack a prime minister.

Aziz, who has also signed the Citizens Declaration, said while this may be true, there have been instances where rulers have removed sitting prime ministers from office.

This includes one incident in 1975, when the Australian prime minister was sacked by the governor-general, he said.

In 1975, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam met with Governor-General John Kerr to seek a partial election, only for the senate, as the opposition controlled senate was blocking legislation.

Instead, Kerr sacked Whitlam and replaced him with the opposition leader.

Aziz said while there are technical differences between what happened in 1975 and today, any abuse of the constitution should be enough to empower the Agong to act.

Ironically, he said, he had first put forth his argument in 1993, after the Mahathir-led government amended the constitution to curb the power of the palace.

“Strangely, it is now Mahathir who is desperately using this argument, which in those days he hated so much.

“Whatever it is, we have passed the ordinary and normal stage; we are now in crisis,” Aziz said.