Harapan's stand on Shafie's candidacy likely to be known only after Friday

A crucial Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting on the coalition's prime ministerial candidate will likely take place only after Friday.

According to PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution (above, right), the coalition's secretariat was scheduled to meet on Thursday.

The secretariat's meeting will set a date for the presidential council meeting, which usually sets policy directions for the coalition. The last meeting was held on June 13.

All eyes are currently on whether or not the Harapan leadership council will endorse Semporna MP and Warisan leader Shafie Apdal as the opposition's candidate for prime minister.

The opposition coalition - now comprising of Harapan (PKR, Amanah and DAP), alongside Warisan and five former Bersatu MPs - appeared to be keen on agreeing on a prime ministerial candidate soon.

Such a candidate will have three key implications.

Firstly, the opposition coalition believed that they needed a candidate in case Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin no longer enjoyed majority support in the Dewan Rakyat.

Muhyiddin's level of support will be put to the test when the Dewan Rakyat sitting starts again on July 13.

Secondly, the opposition coalition also needed to prepare for snap elections, as more and more Umno leaders pressure Muhyiddin to do so.

Lastly, a prime ministerial candidate will decide who will sit on the immediate left of the Dewan Rakyat speaker, which is usually left to the opposition leader and hence, normally, the opposition's choice of prime minister.

Since late May, the opposition could not agree on whether their candidate should be Port Dickson MP Anwar Ibrahim or Langkawi MP Dr Mahathir Mohamad after a series of high-level meetings.

Mahathir somewhat broke the deadlock yesterday by declaring that he was no longer in the running. 

However, he also revealed that he had convened an informal meeting involving opposition parties, sans PKR, on Thursday, where the participants endorsed Shafie as their candidate for prime minister.

PKR has not officially offered a response to the latest development, although leaders from all three Harapan parties have come out to state that Mahathir's proposal should be discussed when the coalition's leadership meets next. 

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