KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s king Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah on Friday said he will let party leaders nominate prime ministerial candidates, shifting the battle for power after opposition parties switched their allegiance from interim leader Mahathir Mohamad to a seasoned politician from his party.Mahathir, 94, who is seeking to return as prime minister for a third time after his ruling alliance collapsed this week, suffered double blows after the king rejected his call for a vote in Parliament to elect a new leader and his supporters threw their backing to the president of his Bersatu party, Muhyiddin Yassin.Muhyiddin, 72, is a longtime politician who served under former PMNajib Razak but was sacked in 2015 after he criticised Najib’s handling of a massive graft scandal at the 1MDB state investment fund. He helped Mahathir in 2016 form Bersatu, which later joined with an opposition alliance led by former foe Anwar Ibrahim to win a 2018 general election and oust Najib’s corruptiontainted coalition that had led the country for 61 years.The new ruling alliance collapsed after Muhyiddin led Bersatu out on Monday in a bid to form a new Malay-centric government with Najib’s United Malays National Organisation and several smaller opposition parties without Anwar. The plan flopped after Mahathir quit in protest of the plan to work with UMNO.The palace refused to side with Mahathir, who said on Thursday that the king would let the lower house of Parliament vote next Monday to elect a new prime minister. The palace said that it will now reach out to leaders of political parties to let them nominate candidates for the top job. Shortly after, Bersatu said 36 lawmakers, including nearly a dozen who defected from Anwar's party, have decided to support Muhyiddin.