KUALA LUMPUR - Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Anwar Ibrahim left the national palace late Tuesday morning (Oct 13) after an audience with the King to discuss his claim of having majority support in Parliament to form a new government.

Datuk Seri Anwar is expected to make an "important announcement" this afternoon, according to a media invite sent out by PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil.

The opposition leader had earlier arrived at the palace at around 10.30am in a black Jaguar car, and left at 11.30am.

He waved to reporters from his car on his way out but did not respond to queries from the media, which had gathered in front of the palace gates since morning.

A group of Mr Anwar's supporters, wearing face masks and black shirts, were chanting "Reformasi" (Reformation) as his car made its way out of the palace.

In a Facebook post ahead of his meeting, Mr Anwar wrote: "Hope everything goes smoothly today."

Mr Anwar had claimed on Sept 23 that he had the backing of a "formidable" group of federal lawmakers to become the next prime minister.

He had also claimed that the seven-month-old government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had "fallen".

Mr Anwar's audience with Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin last month was delayed by three weeks, after the 61-year-old ruler was hospitalised for 12 days with food poisoning and sports injuries.

The constitutional monarch will play a major role in what will happen next in Malaysian politics.

Sultan Abdullah, if he is convinced that Mr Anwar has the numbers, could ask Tan Sri Muhyiddin to step down, as allowed under the Constitution.

Alternatively, the monarch could consult Mr Muhyiddin, 73, as the sitting prime minister, on whether he would like to call a fresh general election.

The King could also request that the Speaker of Parliament bring forward the next parliamentary sitting, currently set for Nov 2, to hold a vote of confidence earlier.

At the end of February, when the government of then Premier Mahathir Mohamad collapsed, Sultan Abdullah met each of the 222 MPs in turn to ask them who they would support as the eighth prime minister of Malaysia.

Mr Muhyiddin had the highest number of MPs backing him then and so was appointed prime minister on March 1.

Mr Anwar, 73, has declined to give the exact number of MPs supporting his bid to form a new government, saying he must show the list to Sultan Abdullah first.

Mr Anwar will need at least 112 MPs in the 222-seat Parliament to claim control of the House.

Before last month's claim by Mr Anwar of a switch in support to his side, Mr Muhyiddin had the support of 113 MPs.

Pakatan Harapan, the three-party coalition led by Mr Anwar, has a total of 91 MPs. In this bid for power, Mr Anwar is not seeking support from a bloc of 15 opposition MPs, amid tensions between both sides.

This group consists of Tun Dr Mahathir's new Pejuang party (five MPs), Sabah chieftain Shafie Apdal (nine MPs) and young politician Syed Syed Abdul Rahman (one seat).

Mr Anwar would thus need to draw support from MPs in Mr Muhyiddin's loose Perikatan Nasional alliance that includes Umno, Mr Muhyiddin's own Bersatu party, the Gabungan Parti Sarawak coalition and other small parties in Sabah.