Kuala Lumpur: Bersatu secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin has warned off Umno’s general election hotheads, reminding the party it would not be able to form a government except with Perikatan Nasional support.
PN would not hesitate to “take over control” if there were continued calls from Umno for an early general election, he told delegates at the first congress of Bersatu’s Federal Territories divisions,
“To all those who have been asking us to pull support for the prime minister (Ismail Sabri Yaakob), don’t be so proud. He is not (Umno’s) party president. He is a vice-president but he became prime minister – with PN’s support,” he said.
He sounded a warning to Umno about how many seats they could win. Addressing “all those who are proud and arrogant”, he said: “Have you really counted the numbers?”
He said Umno could not have more than 50 seats “and yet they want to challenge us? If this is the way their leaders are, we will rise up with our allies in PN and take over control of this country.”
The next general election has to be held by next September, but some Umno leaders have pressed for it to be called this year, following convincing victories for BN at recent state elections.
Last month, BN deputy chairman Mohamad Hasan said the best time to hold the next general election would be October or early November.
In June, BN chairman and Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said elections could be called as young voters had voted for BN, based on the results of the state elections in Sarawak, Melaka, and Johor.
