In a move that might jolt Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's grip on the reins of power, UMNO announced that it was considering withdrawing their support from the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) government unless certain conditions were met.
UMNO, the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and Muhyiddin's Bersatu party are currently allied and are governing Malaysia, following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government.
But following a meeting of UMNO's supreme council on the night of Oct. 13, the party's secretary-general Ahmad Maslan made the following statement, according to Malaysiakini:
"UMNO will consider withdrawing support for PN and will set new conditions for the PN government to continue political cooperation through a written agreement that will be implemented as soon as possible."
Why is UMNO doing this?
The statement did not set out what these conditions are, or the reason for such a move.
But the two parties, despite being allied, may have tensions over who gets to call the shots.
UMNO has more MPs than Bersatu, and during the recent Sabah state election, it won more seats in the state government than Bersatu.
Yet UMNO acceded to Muhyiddin and allowed his man, Hajiji Noor of Bersatu, to become the Chief Minister over their own UMNO leader Bung Moktar Radin.
If UMNO does pull their support, Muhyiddin's position would be untenable as he would no longer have majority support in Parliament.
What's Anwar's role?
UMNO's announcement came on the same day as Anwar Ibrahim's audience with the Malaysian king.
The PKR leader said he had "120 signatures" of MPs supporting him.
However, the palace later said that Anwar did not reveal the names of those supporters.
Anwar said the king needed time to "digest" and go over the documents he presented.
Meanwhile, the king has summoned various politicians for an audience -- including veteran MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and party leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of UMNO.
The meetings may be to ascertain whether Anwar has the support he claims, considering that Ahmad Zahid has publicly stated many of his own party's MPs are backing Anwar.
Where's Mahathir?
The former UMNO, Bersatu and Pakatan Harapan heavyweight does not seem to have been summoned for a royal audience.
Now the leader of yet another party, Pejuang, Mahathir released a video, also on Oct. 13.
In it, he said that he is not backing anyone to become prime minister, without naming Anwar.
According to Bernama, he said:
"I was informed that I am backing one of the candidates aspiring to be the prime minister; I would like to state that I have never supported anyone as a candidate to become the prime minister.
I hope there are no more attempts stating that I am supporting a certain individual. No support, thank you."
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Top image from Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's Facebook page.