Rulers arrive at Istana Negara for special meeting

KUALA LUMPUR – Ahead of the Conference of Rulers expected to begin at 10.30am today, royal motorcades ferrying the royalties are seen arriving at the Istana Negara, here, since 9.40am.

The first motorcade to arrive was from the Johor royalty where an official car of the Johor Palace arrived at 9.40am.

The maroon Audi believed to be ferrying Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar entered the Palace through Gate 1.

At 10.20am, the motorcade with vehicle ferrying the regent of Pahang, Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah Al Sultan Abdullah Riayatuddin Al Mustafa Billah Shah arrived at the Palace.

Meanwhile, the Raja Muda of Perlis Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail arrived at 10.30am.

At 10.45am, motorcade ferrying Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah arrived at the Palace.

This was followed by Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, Sultan of Kedah Al Aminul Karim Sultan Sallehuddin Sultan Badlishah, Sultan of Terengganu Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin who arrived about 10 minutes later.

Earlier, more than 100 media practitioners had waited outside of the palace compound since 8am, where a Conference of Rulers was expected to be held this morning.

Malaysia has entered a stalemate after none of the parties which stood in GE15 last Saturday won enough parliamentary seats to form government.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) has won the most seats at 82, followed by Perikatan Nasional (PN): 73; Barisan Nasional (BN): 30; Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS): 22; Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS): 7 and others: 6.

The impasse occurred as parties needed to at least secure 112 parliamentary seats to form government as Malaysia has a total of 222 parliamentary seats.

Due to the impasse, the number one leaders in both PH and PN; Anwar Ibrahim and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, respectively; have been negotiating with rival party, BN, in a bid to woo support to form government.

The Conference of Rulers today would discuss the ongoing formation of the new government.

The meeting was being convened for the rulers to come to a decision that would be in the interest of the people and the country.