Umno To Reject Dpm Post Cut Ties With Pn After Emergency Party Sources

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Umno has decided to end its alliance with Bersatu and Perikatan Nasional (PN) as soon as the emergency ends.
According to a party source, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi made the decision at the Umno supreme council meeting held in Janda Baik, Pahang, last Friday.
"Umno has decided to end its cooperation with Bersatu as soon as the 'health-related emergency' ends. The president (Zahid) announced the matter at the Umno supreme council meeting.
"Umno will also not accept any invitation related to the post of deputy prime minister," the source told Malaysiakini.
Umno's relationship with Bersatu has been increasingly strained in recent months.
According to the source, the Umno supreme council meeting last month decided to end cooperation with Bersatu ahead of the 15th general election (GE15).
However, Umno failed to validate the decision after the Umno general assembly scheduled for Jan 30 was cancelled due to the movement control order.
Umno was also previously linked to speculation that the party was collaborating with PKR to bring down the PN government.
Meanwhile, a member of the supreme council who declined to be named claimed that Zahid "used his power" to reject cooperation with Bersatu and PN.
The party president also allegedly said that he was rejecting PN's offer of giving the deputy prime minister post to Umno.
The supreme council member claimed that Zahid was going against the sentiments of the majority of Umno members who favoured the formula used in the Sabah state elections.


"Supreme council members agreed for Umno to join with PN on behalf of BN, as was done during the Sabah elections to avoid a three-cornered fight.
"As for the post of deputy prime minister, the president used his power to reject the proposal," claimed the source.
However, last month it was reported that a total of 189 out of 191 Umno divisions nationwide rejected any form of cooperation with Bersatu for GE15. 
Only two divisions, each in Kelantan and Perlis, had agreed to continue working with Bersatu.
Malaysiakini learnt that the Kelantan party division which agreed to tighten ties with Bersatu is Ketereh, a constituency under Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa, who was removed from his post as BN secretary-general, allegedly because of his close links to Bersatu.
Another source in Umno rebutted the claim that the majority of the party supreme council members had agreed to work with PN.
He said that only a few council members were in favour of working with PN.
"The majority of the members are supportive of this decision, but they did not make any public statement because all of them have agreed not to. That's why there is not even a single statement or even a Tweet on this decision. All have agreed that a statement on the decision would only be sent to the prime minister in private.
"But this person who spoke to Malaysiakini is surely among the few who disagreed with what the party had decided. We call these few (council members) Kluster Menteri. Only one or two of them... They tried to defend, to justify (why Umno should stay with the PN) but they could not because the majority are against them," the source told Malaysiakini.
It is understood that the source was referring to a group of Umno leaders who have been made cabinet ministers in the PN government. The source, however, did not want to divulge who among them had defended PN in the party meeting.
"If he had wanted to 'veto' the decision, Zahid did not even need to call for a supreme council meeting," the source added.
The source pointed to recent decisions by the majority of Umno divisions that rejected cooperation with Bersatu in the next general election. - Mkini

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