Dr Mahathir Mohamad has claimed that the Citizens' Declaration is being discredited in order for the authorities to confiscate the document and identify the signatories.

"Now, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's supporters are discrediting the Citizens' Declaration; supposedly there is a lot of fraud.

"They demand that the police confiscate the declaration from the secretariat.

"The hope is so that police can identify those who have signed the declaration and threaten them," the former prime minister said in his latest blog post.

Mahathir claimed there were already threats that those who signed the declaration would lose their BR1M aid, scholarships for their children, business opportunities and other benefits.

"Actually, many people are not willing to sign the declaration because Najib's regime threatens and harasses them.

"If there are no harassments and threats, more people will sign the Citizens' Declaration.

"Millions of people agree that Najib should stop being prime minister but they are afraid of action by Najib's regime," he said.

Last month, it was announced that the Citizens' Declaration, which calls for Najib's removal as prime minister, had achieved 1.2 million signatures.

'They are silent supporters of Najib'

However, NGOs including Soldariti Anak Muda Malaysia, which were traditionally aligned to the opposition but are upset that they are cooperating with Mahathir, lodged a series of police reports, claiming that the petition was plagued by fraud.

Mahathir slammed them as traitors.

"They are actually silent supporters of Najib out to save Najib," he said.

Mahathir stressed that the Save Malaysia secretariat will press on with the petition.

"Efforts to get (signatures for) the Citizens' Declaration will continue. I believe many Malaysians dare to voice out.

"Traitors to the people and democracy will not succeed, even though they receive protection from Najib," he said.

Mahathir had accused Najib of corruption over the deposits amounting to billions of ringgit in his personal bank accounts, claiming that the funds are linked to 1MDB.

Najib has denied this, and stressed that he had never taken public funds for personal gain.

Najib said the money in his personal bank accounts was an Arab "donation".

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali accepted this explanation and cleared Najib of any wrongdoing.