Malaysia’s Hung Parliament: UMNO agreed to take part in unity govt not led by Perikatan

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — UMNO, Barisan National(BN) leading component party had made a unanimous decision to obey Malaysia King’s order for BN to support and take part in a unity government not led by Perikatan Nasional(PN).

Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) secretary-general announced the decision made by its Supreme Council, after a three-hour special meeting chaired by the party president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yesterday (23 Nov) night.

“The supreme council also agreed that all party representatives who won Parliament seats in the 15th General Election(GE15) to obey and accept whatever unity government or other forms of government that will be announced by the King.”

He added that this was to ensure that a prosperous and stable government could be formed.

Ahmad Mazlan said UMNO Supreme Council had acknowledged and gone through details of earlier discussions between BN’s negotiation committee with both Pakatan Harapan(PH) and PN during the special meeting.

UMNO’s vice-president, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was seen by the media meeting with representatives from PN at St Regis hotel, Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

BN top leaders also met Anwar at Seri Pacific Hotel on 21 November.

UMNO reiterated support to Zahid Hamidi

Following BN’s tragic loss in GE15, Zahid Hamidi has been embattled with criticism and calls to step down. However, UMNO reiterated its support for Zahid to remain as UMNO chairman as well as chairman of BN.

Ahmad Mazlan’s statement mentioned that the UMNO general assembly would be held from 21 to 24 December this year.

Some leaders from within UMNO, and even leaders from BN component parties already expressed their disappointment toward Zahid Hamidi publicly.

Datuk Chong Sin Woon, MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) secretary-general urged yesterday for Ahmad Zahid to be replaced by his deputy Mohamad Hasan, also known as Tok Mat, as BN’s chairman.

With only 30 seats secured out of the contested 177 seats, BN is now facing its worst result in the coalition’s history.

UMNO won 26 seats out of 120 seats contested, while MCA gained only 2 seats out of 44 contested seats.

Both PH and PN do not hold enough seats of a simple majority to form the new government but an additional of BN’s 30 seats will be sufficient to meet the requirement for both coalitions.