He said in a statement today that the approaches were made after the Johor state elections in December. Among the parties that approached him was Pejuang.

He said the parties wanted to band together for the general election, to avoid multi-cornered fights and to prevent Barisan Nasional from returning to power.

Muhyiddin’s statement comes days after Pejuang chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad had claimed that Muhyiddin had sought Pejuang’s help to help him become prime minister again. Mahathir said Pejuang “is not going to support somebody who as the prime minister was as much a failure as Najib (Razak) was”.

However, Muhyiddin said today the meeting with Mahathir was actually arranged by a senior Pejuang leader.

Muhyiddin had become prime minister in 2020 after leading Bersatu out of the Pakatan Harapan coalition and causing the collapse of Mahathir’s government. In turn, he was supplanted by Ismail Sabri Yaakob in August last year.

Muhyiddin said that after being approached following the Johor elections, he had taken the initiative to meet with leaders of parties in the government and opposition to discuss possible cooperation for GE15.

“They (party leaders) realise the majority of the people don’t support BN, which is still stained by kleptocracy. But because of the multi-cornered fights between political parties, the anti-BN votes are split,” he said, citing the results of the Johor and Melaka state elections.

The opposition parties suffered a rout at the hands of BN at both state assembly elections.