Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin has received the support of Umno, PAS, MCA and MIC to be the next prime minister.

Assuming that all Bersatu MPs back him, he would have the support of 96 MPs and the largest bloc in the Dewan Rakyat.

That would leave Muhyiddin just 16 short of the 112 required for a simple majority to form a new government.

However, not all of Bersatu's 36 MPs are expected to back Muhyiddin.

Apart from Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his son Mukhriz, who is Bersatu president, the others who might refrain from backing Muhyiddin are Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Wanita chief Rina Harun and supreme council member Maszlee Malik.

The number of Bersatu MPs increased following former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali's faction, which played an instrumental role in the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government, joined the party.

However, the status of one of those in the faction, Ranau MP Jonathan Yasin, is still unclear after the latter posted on Facebook yesterday that he has not quit PKR.

He then replaced it with another post minutes later, saying he will discuss the matter with the PKR leadership.

The next closest rival is PKR Anwar Ibrahim, who has the support of 92 Harapan MPs. It is also claimed that he has the backing of lawmakers outside of the coalition.

This means that Gabungan Parti Sarawak, with 18 seats, could potentially be the kingmaker and bring the ongoing political crisis to an end.

Meanwhile, the Star quoted political sources as claiming that Warisan-UPKO which has 10 seats could also throw their weight behind Muhyiddin.

Previously, Umno and PAS had backed Mahathir.

However, his refusal to work with Umno en bloc and his proposal to form a unity government led the two parties to retract their support and insist on snap polls instead.

Harapan also refused to join Mahathir's unity government on grounds that they could not compromise on their election manifesto and that it could lead to a dictatorship.