KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's search for its next prime minister was nearing a pivotal moment on Thursday, with the palace due to host lawmakers from several parties believed to support former Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for the top job.

Multiple local media outlets reported that 114 lawmakers had backed Ismail by fax, email or text before a 4 p.m. deadline on Wednesday. If so, that would give him a majority in the 222-seat lower house, where two spots are vacant.

Thursday's palace audiences, expected to run late into the afternoon, are intended to verify the numbers. Under Malaysia's constitution, the king has the power to appoint a prime minister deemed to control a parliamentary majority.

But while Ismail may indeed have the edge on opposition candidate Anwar Ibrahim, the prospect of his appointment is ruffling some feathers. Ismail hails from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the lead party in the long-ruling but scandal-tainted coalition that lost Malaysia's 2018 election.

A major factor in the UMNO camp's defeat to Mahathir Mohamad's opposition coalition was suspicion of rampant corruption under then Prime Minister Najib Razak, an influential figure in the party to this day. Najib was convicted last year on seven charges of financial misconduct and abuse of power in connection with defunct state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) -- verdicts he is appealing while facing other pending charges.

Now, if Ismail is named prime minister, UMNO will have essentially overturned the 2018 election result without ever going back to the polls.

First, in early 2020, the party backed Muhyiddin Yassin's internal coup with the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), prompting Mahathir's resignation and allowing Muhyiddin to become prime minister that March.

Then UMNO turned against Muhyiddin, vowing not to cooperate with Bersatu in the next election. Party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi led 15 lawmakers in formally withdrawing support for Muhyiddin's government, prompting his resignation on Monday.

Ismail and his own faction stood by Muhyiddin until the end, opening a rift within UMNO. But after party lawmakers settled their differences and agreed to back him unanimously, UMNO now appears to be on the cusp of a return to power.

Ismail has not been implicated in corruption himself. Shortly before his nomination was announced, UMNO lawmaker Zahidi Zainul Abidin was quoted by local media as saying, "What is important is that [the candidate] is clean and does not have any cases that could cast doubt on his credibility."

But online rumblings suggest an undercurrent of public unhappiness with Ismail's increasingly likely rise. A Change.org petition titled "We don't want Ismail Sabri Yaakob to be prime minister Malaysia" has attracted over 150,000 signatures. The petition accuses him of mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and of fanning ethnic tensions between Malays and Chinese.

Ismail was a central figure in Malaysia's coronavirus response, as a senior minister for security. Despite one of the higher vaccination rates in Southeast Asia, with about 35% fully inoculated, many see the government's measures as a failure due to still-rising infections and economically damaging lockdowns. The country reported 22,242 new cases on Thursday, another record. Total cases have exceeded 1.4 million with over 13,000 deaths.

Ismail, 61 and a lawyer by education, has held various federal portfolios since becoming youth and sports minister in 2008, barring a short spell in the opposition from 2018 to 2020. He also served as the parliament's opposition leader for a year.