Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent announcement that he would consult his coalition partners on the possibility of snap elections is the surest signal yet that general elections may be around the corner.

His statement followed Johor Umno’s announcement that the coalition state government it leads, Barisan Nasional (BN) of which Umno is the lead component party, intends to contest all 56 seats in the state elections that must be held by April next year, when the current term of the state assembly ends.

This means that Johor BN would be going solo in the state elections without any tie-ups with the Anwar-led Pakatan Harapan (PH) with which BN formed the federal government as a partner.

PH partners protested, calling out the move by Johor BN as a betrayal.

Apparently, PH hoped that the current arrangement it has with BN at the federal level would be extended to the state level as well in any election. However, the Memorandum of Understanding that BN signed with PH to form the federal government is valid for the current full term.

The Johor state government is led by BN, which holds a comfortable 40-seat majority. PH has 12 seats, Perikatan Nasional (PN) three and Muda one. PN and Muda form the Opposition.

Since BN is a component of the PH-led federal government, PH has a confidence-and-supply agreement with the BN government in Johor and is not part of the Opposition.

Any official collaboration BN has with PH is only for the current term. Thus, Johor BN is within its rights to go solo in the next elections. Whether there was any discussion to extend the current arrangement to the next term is not known.

Questions, however, arise over whether Johor BN made its decision with the approval of the national leadership. If BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi did give the approval without consulting the PH national leadership, it is understandable why PH would feel they have been played out and why Anwar would want to discuss the issue with Zahid as he has announced.

This was not the first time BN undermined the PH-BN collaboration. In Negri Sembilan, in the recent turmoil over a sacked undang that led to the powerful Undang Yang Empat (4 Undang), who chooses and dismisses the state ruler, announced it was sacking the ruler and called for the sacking of the PH Menteri Besar (MB) Aminuddin Harun as well. This lead to 14 Umno state assemblymen withdrawing their support for the MB who leads a PH-led coalition government with Umno.

Zaid, however, talked with the 14 and they retracted their withdrawal and the state government remained intact.

Around the same time as Johor Umno’s declaration to go solo in the state elections, two key MPs from Anwar’s party, PKR, announced that they were taking over an existing party and leaving PKR.

Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli and Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad announced that they were taking over Parti Bersama Malaysia and a day later handed over their resignation letters to the Dewan Rakyat. The latter informed the Election Commission of the vacancies and that there would be no by-elections according to the law, which states that by-elections are unnecessary if the MPs had finished three years of their term.

With the resignation of the two, Anwar no longer has a two-thirds majority.

The above three events are clear indications that the prime minister has lost the support of MPs. In a practising parliamentary democracy, the PM would have called for a confidence vote to test his support.

But, since Anwar’s administration is an appointed government, that democratic proof of support was not demanded.

Perhaps the prime minister may have thought that snap elections would be better. Since his earlier announcement, there has been no indication that he intends to follow through on his announcement.

In the context of the current political climate, a snap election would be essential if only to form a constitutional and democratic government.

However, if the practice of forming a government from 2018 is followed, there is no guarantee that a constitutional and democratic government will be formed on the proof of majority support of the MPs for the PM-designate.

Until a democratic process is established by the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat to choose such a PM in the event of a hung Parliament which is the expected outcome of a GE, the role of appointing a PM will fall on the king. In other words, the PM is appointed and support for him will have to be negotiated with parties for majority support, binding their MPs to honour the negotiated arrangements.

That would be unconstitutional as the constitution clearly states that the PM must have the support of the majority of the MPs, which is proven only by a free vote — not by binding the parties through deals to bind their MPs.

Until this issue is resolved, a general election will not bring the political stability hoped for.

The MPs are the people’s elected representatives, and it is they who choose the PM the people want, not the parties. The choice of the people through their MPs emerges only through a confidence vote without prior deals with their parties.

If Anwar’s government is committed to parliamentary democracy and is accountable to the people, it will resolve this issue first before calling for snap elections.

In the absence of a democratic process to choose a PM in the Dewan Rakyat, the only alternative left is for political parties to form a coalition of multiple parties and allies, which is most likely to win a simple majority. Then their PM-designate is duly appointed.