Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin postponed the Malaysian parliament until May, helping him not to face a no-confidence vote immediately.

Malaysia's parliament chairman said the change was based on a decision on Tuesday by Prime Minister Muhyiddin, who was sworn in over the weekend. Accordingly, the first meeting in 2020 of the Malaysian parliament will start from May 18, instead of March 9 as expected. The second and third parliamentary sessions of the year were also postponed to July 27 and September 28 respectively.

With this decision by Muhyiddin, his political rival, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, will have to wait until mid-May to hold a no-confidence vote in parliament against his successor.

This is considered a "time-consuming" move by the new Prime Minister Muhyiddin, giving him more time to consolidate support in the divided parliament after the collapse of the ruling coalition and the former Prime Minister Mahathir, 94 years old, suddenly applied for resignation.

Mahathir's resignation sparked a fierce race for prime minister. Mahathir tried to mobilize MPs to support him, but eventually "lost" to Muhyiddin, who led an alliance with a majority of Malaysian Muslims.

After Muhyiddin was appointed by the King of Malaysia as Prime Minister, Mahathir called for an immediate vote of confidence in parliament to prove he had enough members to form the government. Muhyiddin insists he has the support of the entire Bersatu party, including Mahathir and his son.

Muhyiddin has the support of the majority of Bersatu parliamentarians as well as the Umno party, the Muslim Islamic party and the Gabungan Parti Sarawak. However, Mahathir argues that Muhyiddin does not have the support of over-selling parliamentarians in Malaysia's 222-member parliament to form a government.

In his first speech, Muhyiddin asked everyone to give him the opportunity to rule the country. "Give me some time to guide the government and this country under the new government," the new Malaysian Prime Minister said.