Anwar Ibrahim has confirmed that he was nominated to be candidate for prime minister by Pakatan Harapan leaders.

Anwar, who is Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president, said this was a decision made by the Pakatan presidential council on Tuesday, Feb. 25, after Mahathir Mohamad declined to attend its presidential council meeting.

Demoractic Action Party's (DAP) Lim Guan Eng and Parti Amanah Negara's (Amanah) Mohamad Sabu, who are senior PH leaders, were present when Anwar made the announcement during a joint press conference at PKR's headquarters in Petaling Jaya.

A PH statement read out by Anwar said: “The presidential council had invited Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to chair the meeting to recover the Pakatan government. But Dr Mahathir did not agree to attend that meeting on Tuesday."

“Therefore, the presidential council decided, on Tuesday, that the prime minister candidate is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim."

“Pakatan remains committed towards the aspirations and the mandate of the people to bring the country to a greater direction in terms of the economy, politics and society."

"We will not betray this mandate."

This turn of events is another plot twist as Pakatan and its leaders had backed Mahathir to be PM just the day before, giving the 94-year-old the unusual unanimous support across political parties.

But PH and the other opposition parties pulled out their support for Mahathir when they found out that he was planning to form a government by picking and choosing MPs from different parties.

Anwar, a Port Dickson MP, also said all parties should wait for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's decision on the matter and abide by it.

"We should respect his (Agong) decision as it will be made based on the country's Constitution and laws," Anwar said.

"Following attempts to form a backdoor government, Tun Dr Mahathir has stepped down as PM. The decision of Bersatu to leave Pakatan Harapan on Monday was followed by Tun's resignation as the chairman for Bersatu," Anwar added.

Three blocs in Malaysian politics currently

PH currently consists of a three-party coalition.

It has 92 federal lawmakers, comprising 42 MPs from DAP, 39 MPs from PKR and 11 members from Amanah.

As there are 222 seats in the parliament, the coalition looking to form a new government would need to have at least 112 members of parliament.

There are currently three blocs in Malaysian politics.

There is the PH bloc led by Anwar.

Support for Mahathir to be prime minister has come from another bloc of MPs from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan), who want to usurp power to form their new ruling coalition.

Barisan Nasional and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia form the third bloc and they have called for parliament to be dissolved so that political parties can seek fresh mandate from the people.