He said the party would wait for a full report before taking action.

“I will need to review these allegations, and the Umno headquarters will look into it and decide on them,” Sinar Harian reported him as saying at the Bagan Serai delegates’ meeting in Perak today.

Ahmad, who is deputy works minister, said the government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim remains stable with a sizeable majority in Parliament.

“People may question us if our support goes as low as 113 seats. But we have 153. Even if 10 people go, we still have 143. So why do we need to take down the prime minister? He has strong support and the economy is developing well,” he said.

(A total of 112 seats is enough for a simple majority in the 222-member Dewan Rakyat).

Ahmad said the rally today had tarnished Malaysia’s international image, making it seem as if the country is in turmoil.

The Turun Anwar rally was attended by about 18,000 people, according to a police estimate, while the rally organisers, PAS Youth, claimed there were over 200,000 participants.