Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief Muhyiddin Yassin is not accepting his rival Anwar Ibrahim’s appointment as prime minister.

He insisted that he had statutory declarations (SD) from 115 MPs on his side before Tuesday’s royal audience, enough to become prime minister.

He had submitted 114 SDs on Monday, he stated, which was acknowledged as received by the palace, and received another SD the day after.

Muhyiddin said Anwar must now prove that he has a majority by showing how many SDs he has with him.

"At 10.30am on Nov 22, PN's secretary-general sent another statutory declaration giving me the confidence to be appointed as prime minister, making the number of MPs 115.

"This is more than a simple majority of 112 people needed to allow me to be appointed as prime minister.

"Today, Istana Negara issued a statement that Anwar, who is said to have the support of the majority of Dewan Rakyat members, will be appointed as prime minister

"For the sake of the people's confidence in Anwar's legitimacy as prime minister, it is appropriate for him to prove that he has the support of the majority of Dewan Rakyat members," Muhyiddin said at a press conference this afternoon.

Anwar Ibrahim taking his oath of office as the country’s 10th prime minister

This, he added, was in line with the procedures laid out by outgoing Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun - who had on Sunday asked for prime minister candidates to submit SDs to Istana Negara.

He reiterated that he had the support of 115 MPs, with the following breakdown: 73 MPs from Perikatan Nasional, 22 MPs from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), six from Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), one from Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM), 10 from Barisan Nasional and 2 independent MPs.

"All these documents were sent to Istana Negara at 1.28pm on November 21, which is before the deadline set for parties to send related documents to Istana Negara, as required by the Speaker of the House of Representatives," Muhyiddin said.

However, GRS stated today that it would accept any decision and advice by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the formation of a unity government.

Just minutes after Muhyiddin's press conference, Anwar was sworn in as Malaysia's 10th prime minister