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BAGAN DATUK: The Umno high council will debate a motion on the future of the party’s relationship with the PPBM, party chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.
He said the motion will be tabled at the Supreme Council meeting on Wednesday (January 6) on whether to cooperate with PPBM in the upcoming general elections.
Earlier today, Zahid had said that 143 of Umno’s 191 division chiefs had agreed to a proposal to reject cooperation with PPBM.
“The motion was presented through a WhatsApp group between the division heads and I, as president, have to respect it, so a motion on it must be studied and discussed at the Supreme Council level,” Zahid told reporters after opening the Bagan Datuk divisional meeting today.
“I hope that the decision made is acceptable to all party members, especially the 38 deputies of Umno or parties in the government,” he said.
Zahid said that the next general elections should be held soon so that the country has a stable government that ensures investors do not transfer their capital to other countries.
General elections will not be held until 2023, when the term of the current Parliament ends. However, the government can decide to call new elections at any time.
Earlier today, Umno Secretary General Ahmad Maslan said that the elections should be held soon, as the current Perikatan Nasional government had “the smallest majority in the world” in Parliament.
At Zahid’s press conference today, he was also asked about a statement by Supreme Council member Tajuddin Abdul Rahman yesterday that Umno would only cooperate with PAS in the general elections.
Zahid said the statement was made by Tajuddin in his capacity as Umno’s electoral director. “Obviously, the declaration was made after having visited all the states of Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. I will seek clarification from Tajuddin on what he meant for deliberation in the Supreme Council, ”he said.
Commenting on a statement by Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki accusing PPBM of “stealing and buying Umno members”, Zahid said it was made after evaluating the findings of a fact-based study.
Asyraf was reported to have said that each Umno member who joined PPBM would be paid RM100 while an allowance of RM3,000 to RM5,000 would be awarded for each branch to be established.
