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PETALING JAYA: The death sentence may have sounded in the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact as Umno Youth recognized today that PAS was now officially part of Perikatan Nasional (PN).
Its boss, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, said that all direct negotiations on seats for the 15th general election (GE15) would be carried out with the PN and not with the PAS.
“The cooperation between Umno-Barisan Nasional (BN) and PN depends to a large extent on the distribution of seats.
“This means that the distribution of seats is no longer based on Umno’s discussions with PAS, but between BN and PN, because PAS has officially joined PN as a component party,” he said in a Facebook post.
MN is a coalition that was formed last year between Umno and PAS to fight the then-ruling Pakatan Harapan.
Asyraf also said that the supreme councils of Umno and BN agreed to support the PN-led government until GE15, adding that the party had raised the idea of a presidential council since March.
He said the presidential council would help prevent further disputes between the parties over the government’s decision to implement certain policies.
It would also allow Umno-BN to directly voice its concerns to the government, such as issues related to the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and credit deferrals, he said.
Earlier this month, PN Secretary General Hamzah Zainudin announced that the parties had agreed to form a presidential council to strengthen cooperation between them.
Yesterday, other government parties, including components of BN and Gabungan Parti Sarawak, agreed to participate in the council.
