“I’d like to stress that I have never informed or confirmed that I obtained majority support from the members of Parliament. This accusation is untrue,” he said in a statement today.

His statement comes a week after Warisan president Shafie Apdal was quoted as saying that Muhyiddin sought his help to become prime minister again, and that he had the support of 119 MPs (which is seven more than a simple majority in the Dewan Rakyat).

Shafie, speaking to an audience in Sandakan, was reported to have been incredulous about how Muhyiddin could have obtained the support of 119 MPs without Warisan’s help.

Muhyiddin, who is chairman of Perikatan Nasional and president of Bersatu, made no reference to Shafie’s claims. He said his discussions with other parties were about the possible formation of electoral pacts to defeat Barisan Nasional at the coming general election.

He said the matter was discussed informally among several opposition parties who met him after the Johor state elections in March.

“Many thought the best way to head into GE15 is to have a one-on-one fight with BN,” he said, adding that he received the mandate from his party to enter into such discussions.

He said the one-on-one fights would not involve the formation of new coalitions, only electoral pacts between parties to avoid a multi-cornered fight that would benefit BN as was seen from the Johor and Melaka state elections.

“BN’s victory in those states was simply because the votes for non-BN parties were split,” he said.

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