KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today he had arranged a meeting with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad just to discuss possible collaboration.

After the latter accused him of seeking help to return as prime minister, Muhyiddin said the meeting was an initial move to get the views of political party leaders and no final decision was made yet.

“They voiced their views to me that it is better for all non-BN parties to form a political collaboration to avoid multi-cornered fights in the 15th general election,” he said in a statement here.

He said they realised that a majority of voters still do not support Barisan Nasional (BN) due to its perceived kleptocratic image, but multi-cornered fights had led to votes being split between the non-BN parties.

“It was why BN won the Melaka and Johor state elections despite being rejected by a majority of the people,” he said.

“This was why I took the initiative to meet with the main leaders of political parties in government and the opposition to form a collaboration for the general election,” he said.

He also said that several political leaders including those from Parti Pejuang Tanah Air, of which Dr Mahathir is chairman, went to meet him after the Johor state elections.

Dr Mahathir had yesterday said Muhyiddin met him recently to ask his favour to regain the prime minister’s post.

The former Bersatu chairman said that Muhyiddin had asked for a favour from the splinter party Pejuang despite knowing the fact that the party is not strong and financially weak.

He also said many in the public were not happy with Muhyiddin’s leadership when he was the prime minister.

Muhyiddin had in 2020 led Bersatu to leave the Pakatan Harapan coalition, leading to the fall of its administration despite winning the 14th general election, with Dr Mahathir resigning as prime minister and later leaving the party to form Pejuang.

Muhyiddin later joined forces with former political enemies Umno and PAS to form the Perikatan Nasional government, with him as the prime minister.