The Selangor palace has set next Wednesday as the deadline for Pakatan Rakyat parties to submit the names of candidates for the menteri besar post.

The date, Sept 3, was stated in a letter from the palace, signed by the sultan's private secretary Mohammad Munir Bani, to Pakatan parties today, which was sighted by Malaysiakini.

PKR and DAP have insisted on only submitting PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail's name despite the sultan yesterday requesting that Pakatan parties submit two or more names.

Mohammad Munir, meanwhile, said that the requirement for the parties to submit more than two names was so that it would be easier for the sultan to come to a decision.

The letter, addressed to Wan Azizah and copied to PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, also stated that the parties submit more than two names.

The letter was sent by an official from the palace by hand to the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya at around 3.15pm today.

The letter, apart from stating that the parties must submit more than two names, asked for the candidates to be Muslim and Malay, in accordance to the laws of the constitution of Selangor.

The letter’s contents, however, did not dictate for a specific gender for the candidates. As such, Wan Azizah had not been rejected by the palace.

The sultan of Selangor yesterday consented to Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s request to relinquish his post as menteri besar.

However, the ruler had asked him to remain at the helm until a replacement is appointed.


Selangor crisis today

9.47am: Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak accuses PKR of 'open nepotism' for nominating Dr Wan Azizah Ismail as MB.

12.59pm: PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali says the party will not nominate its own candidates, but will submit at least two names from PKR.

1pm: PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim says Wan Azizah chosen not because she is his wife but because she is PKR president.

1.33pm: Legal expert Abdul Aziz Bari says that sultan has no power to ask for more than one MB candidate.

2.45pm: MB Khalid Ibrahim denies PKR's and DAP's assertion that they had only nominated him in 2013, although the palace asked for four names.

4pm: With rife speculation of Pakatan break up, PAS MP Khalid Samad says those in PAS who don’t believe in Pakatan can leave the party.

4.35pm: Anwar refutes Khalid’s claim that more than one name was submitted in 2013.

5.45pm: DAP reveals that in 2013, it was Khalid's office who drafted the letter to the palace for Pakatan parties, who nominated only him.

6.17pm: The palace sends letters to Pakatan parties, telling them to submit more than two names each by Sep 3.