PAPAR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) is standing by his claim that Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will work with Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi if Pakatan wins GE15.
The Pejuang chairman was confident that Anwar and Ahmad Zahid had already held talks on this cooperation.
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“Ahmad Zahid is scared that he will go to jail. So, if Anwar (becomes prime minister) he can guarantee that the Umno president will be freed of the charges as seen in the declaration signed (by Barisan candidates).
“I’m certain that they will work together, and we know that Anwar and Ahmad Zahid have met (on this) cooperation,” Dr Mahathir said here on Monday (Nov 7) morning when asked about the claim in his speech the night before in Kota Kinabalu.
Dr Mahathir was speaking to the press after a ceramah here. Also present were his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali and Pejuang's Papar candidate Nicholas Sylvester @ Berry.
Anwar has denied the allegations made by Dr Mahathir, demanding that the former premier show proof of such negotiations ever taking place.
“Dr Mahathir said today ‘It is not that I don’t want to support PH, but they are cooperating with Zahid’. This man is asking for it!
ALSO READ: GE15: Anwar’s focus is only to become PM, claims Dr Mahathir
“I’ve been patient with Dr M ... Once I become PM on the 20th (the day after polling on Nov 19), the first to get a fever would be Dr M. But of course, I will pray for his health,” Anwar said at a ceramah in Seberang Jaya on Sunday night.
On PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang's claim of meeting him to talk about toppling the Barisan Nasional government, Dr Mahathir said: "The claim is true only to him (Abdul Hadi)."
On Sunday night, Abdul Hadi claimed that at the meeting, Dr Mahathir suggested bringing down the Barisan administration and forming a unity government.
However, Abdul Hadi said PAS rejected the idea because it meant the party would have to work with Pakatan Harapan, of which DAP was still a dominant member.
“Dr Mahathir wanted change by establishing a unity government, but due to differing opinions we had to reject it," he told the press in Pasar Peringat.
