Hours after Ismail Sabri was announced and nominated by his party as the 9th Prime Minister of Malaysia on 19 August 2021, an online petition was launched to address to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as well as the Istana Negara, calling on all Malaysians against his possible appointment as the nation's next prime minister after the collapse of the Perikatan Nasional administration on 16 August 2021. The petition, which was started by Kyle Mohd on change.org web, has gained over 200,000 signatures within 8 hours after it went online and has since garnered more than 350,000 signatures.[66] According to the petition, the former deputy prime minister was responsible for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to large-scale infections. Additionally, the petitioner stated that Ismail had issued numerous remarks which were deemed inappropriate such as the boycott call in 2015, where he urged Malay consumers to use their "power and rights" to pressure the Chinese minority to lower prices as well as promoting racial segregation between the Malays and ethnic Chinese in the country, and more.[67] Ismail has been also criticised in the petition for the sometimes confusing and conflicting health protocols, namely Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), including on which economic sectors should stay shut as COVID-19 cases kept rising non-stop.[68]