The Umno supreme council has “unanimously reaffirmed” its support for Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s leadership.
Following a marathon meeting which lasted five hours and ended at 1am at the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, the council said it wanted him to remain as BN chairperson as well.
Yesterday, it was reported that MCA president Wee Ka Siong and his MIC counterpart SA Vigneswaran had inked a letter of no confidence in Zahid and wanted his number two Mohamad Hasan to replace him as BN chairperson
Zahid has also been facing calls to relinquish his post from various quarters in Umno after BN’s dismal electoral performance.
Malaysiakini also reported that there was an attempt to remove him as BN chairperson during the coalition’s supreme council meeting on Tuesday night.
This was due to dissatisfaction over Zahid sending a letter to the palace stating that BNs 30 MPs backed Pakatan Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim as the next prime minister despite a decision for the coalition to remain neutral.
However, Malaysiakini learnt that only 28 MPs had inked the undertaking before the election giving Zahid the mandate to decide on alliances with other parties.
The two who did not sign were Zahid’s second in command Mohamad and Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein who has been steadfast in his opposition to Umno working with Anwar and DAP.
Meanwhile, the Umno supreme council, in its statement this morning, said the party’s general assembly would be held from Dec 21 to 24.
In July, the Registrar of Societies (ROS) approved Umno’s constitutional amendment to postpone its elections to no more than six months after the national polls to allow members to concentrate on election work.
Umno had postponed its elections at all branch, division and supreme council levels for 18 months after the 2018/2021 term ended on June 30 last year.
The 18-month period would end at the end of this year and the 2021/2023 Umno elections must be held before Dec 30, 2022.
The supreme council also decided that BN should support and join a federal government that is not led by Perikatan Nasional. – Malaysiakini