MUAR, Sept 14 — Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Muar division has today demanded Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman immediately vacate his Parliamentary seat after pulling his support from the federal government coalition.

Muar PH secretary Abdullah Sahid said a by-election must be held, where Syed Saddiq needs to retain the seat on his own rather than relying on PH’s support like in the 15th general election last year.

"Syed Saddiq should not hesitate to vacate his parliamentary seat if he is confident about winning back the seat on his and Muda’s strength.

"Let’s hand the Parliamentary seat back to the people of Muar to elect a local leader who will truly carry on the aspirations of the voters who support Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister,” he said in a press conference at the Muar Art Gallery here.

Abdullah also claimed that Syed Saddiq only won due to PH’s support, and voters’ belief in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s vow for reforms.

According to him, Syed Saddiq’s action to leave the Anwar administration when the country needed political stability was inappropriate.

He also accused Muda of being willing to turn into Opposition to destabilise the country for Syed Saddiq’s personal gain.

"The issue of the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision on a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) on Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid was a hypocritical political excuse given by Syed Saddiq to rationalise his reckless and confused actions,” he said.

On Sunday, Muda announced that it has decided to be a "third force” in Malaysia’s politics by becoming an opposition party, but indicated it will still vote for the federal government’s proposed laws in Parliament if those Bills are "progressive” and intended for reforms.

With Muda’s withdrawal of support, Anwar’s unity government coalition of Pakatan Harapan, Barisan Nasional and Gabungan Parti Sarawak parties commanded a total of 147 seats, one seat short of a two-thirds supermajority.

Last year, Syed Saddiq retained the Muar seat under Muda with a slim majority of 1,345 votes over Perikatan Nasional’s Abdullah Husin.

He first won the seat in 2018, then under Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, with a 6,953-vote majority over Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Razali Ibrahim.