PETALING JAYA: Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) says it will contest the 15th general election (GE15) with its own logo as Barisan Nasional (BN) has not admitted the party into its fold.
“PBM respects BN’s decision not to admit the party into the coalition now and we shall contest GE15 under our own logo instead,” said founder member Larry Sng in a Facebook post.
“We will revisit our application to join BN after the election.”
Sng said PBM might not limit itself to contesting seats it won in the last general election.
The former Julau MP – who is in a leadership tussle for the PBM presidency with Zuraida Kamaruddin – added that not all of the party’s parliamentary incumbents would be nominated as candidates.
PBM, which applied to join BN in July, had six MPs in the previous Parliament.
Apart from Sng and Zuraida (Ampang), the party also has Dr Xavier Jayakumar (Kuala Langat), Edmund Santhara Kumar (Segamat), Steven Choong (Tebrau) and Mohamaddin Ketapi (Lahad Datu). Mohamaddin was formerly with Warisan.
When asked about the party’s application to join the coalition, BN deputy chairman Mohamad Hasan previously said BN’s component parties must come to a consensus.
Last month, Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil said it was difficult for BN to welcome PBM into its fold as one of its MPs was from Julau, referring to Sng.
He said approving PBM’s application would complicate BN’s relationship with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), the ruling coalition in Sarawak, as BN would be facing off against GPS for the Julau seat.
