Malaysian opposition party Bersatu on Tuesday sacked an MP and four local leaders for breaching ethics, as splits emerge inside the Malay-Muslim coalition over their candidate for prime minister in national elections slated to be held by 2028.
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Rumblings of a leadership tussle have dogged Bersatu for weeks, culminating in a brief stand-off at the party’s annual meeting on September 6, when some members heckled Muhyiddin Yassin while the party president was delivering his opening speech.
At that meeting, party members voted to nominate the 78-year-old Muhyiddin as their prime ministerial candidate for the next national polls, which must be held by early 2028 at the latest.
The coming elections will be a significant test of support from the country’s Malay-Muslim majority, who account for 60 per cent of the country’s 34 million population and potentially hold the keys to government.
The tensions inside Bersatu followed earlier claims that a faction had collected signatures from 120 division leaders to demand Muhyiddin make way for his deputy, Hamzah Zainuddin.
Bersatu’s disciplinary board said Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan and four other division leaders had been sacked for a breach of party ethics. It did not specify the offences they were alleged to have committed. The board also suspended Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal for a year.