Selangor Bersatu aligns with Muhyiddin, says constitution dictates Mukhriz be sacked

Selangor Bersatu today publicly aligned itself with Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin over disputed party chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad and suggested that the party's constitution also dictated that Mahathir's son Mukhriz Mahathir should be sacked.

Selangor Bersatu chief Abdul Rashid Asari (above) said his state chapter endorsed Muhyiddin to take over as acting Bersatu chairperson.

Abdul Rashid, who was diplomatic in his statement, also thanked Mukhriz for his contributions as Bersatu deputy president but indicated that he should be sacked without mentioning the word "sack", citing the party's constitution.

"Selangor Bersatu thanks Mukhriz who was part of the party's founding and had been a stellar and effective deputy president.

"However, his actions that go against the Bersatu president such as maintaining that the Kedah government was with the opposition (Harapan) and sitting with the opposition in Parliament on May 18. This means Article 10(2) of the Bersatu constitution applies," he said in a statement.

Article 10(2) of the Bersatu constitution states that a person's Bersatu membership is immediately terminated if they engage in a number of activities detrimental to the party.

Among them include joining another political party, contesting in an election against Bersatu's own candidate, being sacked by the Bersatu supreme council after going through a disciplinary process or losing one's citizenship.

They also thanked Mahathir for his services but maintained that he had resigned as the Bersatu chairperson.

Mukhriz (right) with Mahathir

Mahathir had indeed resigned as both prime minister and Bersatu chairperson on Feb 24 after his party defied him and took Bersatu out of Pakatan Harapan to form a new government dubbed "Perikatan Nasional" with PKR defectors, BN, PAS, GPS, PBS and Star.

Shortly after his resignation, however, Bersatu convinced him to stay on and announced that Mahathir would stay on as chairperson.

They then failed to convince Mahathir to go along with the PN plan and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin's faction subsequently disregarded the decision that they had asked him to stay on and rejected his resignation.

As Mahathir mounts a campaign against Muhyiddin, Bersatu is now arguing that the party did not have the power to reject Mahathir's resignation and therefore his resignation stood.

With that, they maintain that Muhyiddin is now the party's acting chairperson. - Mkini