The Malaysian Insight

THE decision to dissolve Parliament and hold the 15th general election (GE15) will be made after discussions among Umno’s top five, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.

“Let the top five discuss this among ourselves and after that we will bring it to the Umno Supreme Council,” said the Umno vice-president during his winding-up speech at the 2021 Umno General Assembly.

Umno’s top five are party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, deputy president Mohamad Hasan and vice-presidents Ismail Sabri, Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Mahdzir Khalid.

This is the first time Ismail is speaking at the Umno General Assembly since his appointment as prime minister last August.

Since then, the Bera MP has come under pressure from the party to dissolve Parliament to hold a general election as Ismail was one of the 23 Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs who chose to back Perikatan Nasional prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin when Umno withdrew its support. 

This led to some tension between Ismail and the Umno leadership.

Placating the general assembly today, Ismail said he, too, wants BN to win the next general election.

“All of us want BN to be dominant in this country again. If we are united, we will win GE15,” he added. – March 19, 2022.