Report: Umno likely to decide on fate of support for Perikatan this Sunday

KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The Umno supreme council is likely to decide on a time frame of when the party will end its support for Perikatan Nasional (PN), Utusan Malaysia reported today.

According to the report, the Umno supreme council is scheduled to meet on April 25, to discuss a few matters, one of which is their support for the PN government.

“According to the schedule, the meeting will be held on April 25 (and) will discuss several matters raised during the Umno general assembly 2020, which gave the mandate to the party president and supreme council to decide a few things.

“This will include our support timeline for PN and the general election which must be held on August 1 or a date prior to that, when the state of Emergency is lifted,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying.

Apart from that, the source also said the supreme council will talk about whether party elections will proceed as scheduled or be postponed.

The Umno general assembly held last month had unanimously agreed to set a date on when the party will withdraw its support for the PN government.

According to the report, this will be the supreme council’s first meeting after the Umno general assembly that was held on March 28.

Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi previously said if the PN government does not dissolve Parliament before or by August 1 (the date when the state of Emergency is slated to be lifted), the party will withdraw all support for the government.

Meanwhile, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said according to the party constitution, the power to decide party elections lies in the hands of the supreme council.

In Utusan Malaysia’s report, Ahmad Maslan confirmed that the meeting will be held, and that it will decide on meeting dates for the branch level which involves 21,883 Umno branches including the Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings.

Ahmad Maslan added that 191 Umno divisions will hold their meeting respectively in four stages which includes the relevant wings with 764 meetings held simultaneously.

“The decision to hold Umno party elections lied in the supreme council.

“According to the party constitution, the meeting must be held within three years of the last meeting in 2018.

“However, the constitution also stated that (the meeting) can be postponed by up to 18 months as was done previously,” said Ahman Maslan when met in Pontian, Johor.

He also urged party members to allow the supreme council to exercise its wisdom when making these decisions which will take into account the party’s interests.

Among others, several Umno leaders, including former Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, have urged for the party election to be held as soon as the date of leadership maturity ends.

According to Khairy, the party election should be held before the 15th general election as this would resolve party infighting.

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