PKR Youth vice-chief Syed Badli Shah Syed Osman said while the present leadership has done well in axing “outdated policies”, the succession should take place before the end of the five-year term.

He said the succession timeline should not exceed two and a half years.

“The transfer of power should not happen later than three years and should not be done in haste. The succession plan should be carried out to ensure the government’s stability,” he said in a statement.

This comes a day after reports quoting Mahathir as saying that he would try to make the most of his two-year “interim” stay as prime minister to make corrections in the administration.

“I don’t know whether it is three years or two years, but I am an interim prime minister,” he was quoted by Singapore’s Straits Times as saying during an interview with foreign media.

Mahathir previously said he needed between two and a half and three years to fix problems related to the country’s finances inherited from the previous Barisan Nasional government.

Under a deal struck by the PH leadership, Anwar, who handsomely won the Port Dickson by-election to mark his return to active politics, will succeed Mahathir as prime minister in two years’ time.

Syed Badli said any attempt to push the transfer of power closer to the end of the five-year mandate for PH would make it difficult for Anwar to initiate reforms.