KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim lauded Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for the latter’s decision today to resign as the prime minister.

The move would provide a fresh opportunity for the country to alter its current trajectory, he said.

"I urge all parties to remain calm and pray that Malaysia recovers strongly in facing the health and economic crises at the moment,” Anwar said in a statement.

"I thank [Muhyiddin] for his service to the country.”

Separately, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng also said Muhyiddin acted correctly by resigning, before acknowledging the latter’s valiant but unsuccessful efforts to steer Malaysia through the pandemic.

Lim said Muhyiddin’s successor would face huge challenges to restore Malaysia that was facing health, economic and political crises.

"The National Immunisation Programme must be accelerated to ensure herd immunity is achieved by inoculation and not infection, a Covid-19 Reset Plan launched to shift from containment of Covid-19 to mitigation by living with Covid-19 and an Economic Normalisation Plan implemented to put Malaysia back on recovery track with emphasis on jobs, reopening the economy and regular financial aid to businesses and unemployed,” Lim said in a statement.

Muhyiddin resigned as the prime minister today and has since been reappointed to the position in a caretaker capacity by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

The resignation came after he lost his parliamentary majority when nearly a dozen Umno MPs openly rejected him.

No successor has been named and the major political parties are believed to be negotiating to secure the support needed to install a leader of their choice as the next prime minister.

Earlier, the Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, ruled out the dissolution of Parliament to trigger a fresh general election by citing the Covid-19 pandemic.