Ex-Gerakan Youth Chief Tan Keng Liang has apologised for making statements that may have “hurt the feeling of Harapan people”

Ex-Gerakan Youth Chief Tan Keng Liang has apologised for making statements that may have “hurt the feeling of Harapan people”.

“We are here to support what we think is best for our country,” he tweeted.

He says he also supports the formation of a unity government.

UMNO holds 26 seats and four others are held by component parties in its National Front alliance. It is unclear if the other party members have agreed to go along with UMNO’s decision.

If all 30 National Front lawmakers support Anwar, he will secure a majority. Anwar already has the support of a small party in Borneo island with three seats. In all, that will give him 115 parliamentary seats.

If Anwar clinches the top job, it will ease fears over the rise of right-wing politics in the country. Muhyiddin’s bloc includes the hard-line Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, which has 49 seats — more than double what it won in 2018. Known as PAS, it backs Islamic Shariah, rules three states and is now the single largest party.

PAS leader Abdul Hadi Awang refused to concede defeat, urging followers to stay calm.

“We are working on it. We are still in the lead. They plan. Allah plans. We are on the right side. God willing we will be protected, the country will be protected,” he wrote on Facebook.

Malay Muslims are two-thirds of Malaysia’s 33 million people, who include large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah is meeting Thursday with royal families from nine states to consult them on the deadlock. Malaysia’s hereditary state rulers, who take turns as the country’s king every five years under a unique rotation system, are highly regarded by the country’s Malay majority as the guardians of Islam and Malay tradition.

Anwar’s reformist alliance won 2018 elections that led to the first regime change since Malaysia’s independence from Britain in 1957. But the government collapsed after Muhyiddin defected and joined hands with UMNO to form a new government. Muhyiddin’s government was beset by internal rivalries and he resigned after 17 months. UMNO leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob was then picked by the king as the prime minister.

Many rural Malays fear they may lose their privileges with greater pluralism under Anwar. Fed up with corruption and infighting in UMNO, many opted for Muhyiddin’s bloc in Saturday’s vote.