UMNO BANKING ON PKR OR AMANAH TO COUGH UP SOME MALAY-MAJORITY SEATS TO HELP IT RETAIN SELANGOR – ‘PERHAPS PH CAN GIVE UP 2 OR 3 OF THE MALAY-MAJORITY SEATS IT WON PREVIOUSLY TO BN. PH CAN THEN FOCUS ON NON-MALAY MAJORITY CONSTITUENCIES’
Close ties with PH can help Umno retain Selangor seats, says source
The source says the party fared badly when Noh Omar, who was recently sacked, was state party chief.
PETALING JAYA: Umno will not only be able to retain its five state seats in Selangor but gain a few more if it cooperates well with Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the state polls, says a party insider.
The source said that for Umno to reach that target and overcome Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) “green wave”, Umno and PH must come up with a mechanism for seat distribution that reflects the spirit of the unity government.
“For instance, perhaps PH can give up two or three of the Malay-majority seats it won previously to BN. PH can then focus on non-Malay majority constituencies, that’s one option,” the source told FMT.
The insider also said BN and PH must not clash with one another but support the candidates put forward by both for a winning chance.
The insider was commenting on Umno’s chances in the upcoming state polls following the sacking of its former chief, Noh Omar, as well as PN’s performance in the last general election (GE15).
The source added that Umno’s performance in Selangor, under Noh’s leadership, had been worse than before. The party only won four state seats in the 2018 general election.
“Had Noh not been sacked by Umno, would the party still have a chance at the state election? We can see for ourselves, when Noh was Selangor Umno chief, how the party fared in GE14,” he said.
The four state seats which Barisan Nasional (BN) won in GE14 are Sungai Tawar (Rizam Ismail), Sungai Burong (Shamsudin Lias), Hulu Bernam (Rosni Sohar), and Sungai Panjang (Imran Tamrin).
Umno later gained another seat, Semenyih, after the death of Bersatu’s Bakhtiar Nor triggered a by-election in 2019. Bersatu was still part of PH at the time.
Last month, Noh was reported to have said that based on Umno’s disastrous performance in GE15, when it lost all its strongholds, its chances of winning at the upcoming state elections are slim.
Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin also said it will be an uphill task for Umno against PN’s “green wave”.
Khairy, however, said he was considering making a political comeback in the upcoming Selangor state election.
He told Channel NewsAsia (CNA) he believes Selangor is the “political epicentre” of Malaysia and he plans to build a new political base in the state.
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