The Malaysian Insight

THERE will be no general election before August as Barisan Nasional (BN) will honour the agreement signed between the government and Pakatan Harapan (PH), Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

“But we hope that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will have the wisdom not to extend it,” he told a press conference at the end of the 2021 Umno General Assembly today.

Zahid was responding to a question on when Ismail should dissolve Parliament after calls by Umno to hold the 15th general election (GE15) as soon as possible.

Shortly after his appointment, Ismail, who is an Umno vice-president, had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PH to obtain political support in exchange for several reform initiatives last September.

The MOU is expected to expire on July 31.

Earlier, Ismail told the general assembly that the timing for GE15 will be decided by the party’s top five leaders. 

“Let the top five discuss this among ourselves and after that we will bring it to the Umno Supreme Council,” he said.

Umno’s top five are Zahid, 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. He succeeded Muhyiddin Yassin, who lost majority support in Parliament.

Since then, Ismail, who is Bera MP, has come under pressure from Umno to dissolve Parliament to hold a general election.

He was one of the 23 BN MPs who chose to back Perikatan Nasional prime minister Muhyiddin when Umno withdrew its support for the government.

This led to some tension between Ismail and the Umno leadership. – March 19, 2022.