Priority is winning Selangor, not number of seats, says Umno’s Jamal Yunos

 

Jamal Yunos said he accepts that Umno had been rejected in the last three terms by the people of Selangor and has no intention of making any demands.

PETALING JAYA: Selangor Umno’s focus in the state polls is not on the number of seats it will contest, but rather on ensuring that the unity government wins the state.

State Umno committee member Jamal Yunos said that was the only way for the party to be part of the Selangor government.

He added that he did not want a fight over seat allocation between Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) to affect their chances of capturing the state.

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BN lost its hold on Selangor for the first time in the 12th general election (GE12) in 2008 and fared poorly in the subsequent two state polls in 2013 (GE13) and 2018 (GE14).

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In the 15th general election (GE15) last November, Perikatan Nasional (PN) managed to win six parliamentary seats, while PH won 16 seats. BN failed to win any seat. The state polls was not held concurrently with the federal polls.

“Our formula for the seat negotiation is that we don’t want to fight. We just want to make sure that all the seats that we contest in will be won so that we’ll be included in the state government,” Jamal told FMT.

“This means that in the state exco lineup, there will be representatives from PH and BN. This is important.”

Jamal said Selangor Umno has learned from its past mistakes when the tussle over seats between BN component parties saw it lose in areas that it could have otherwise won.

“There is no fighting, no pressure, and no demand. It’s all about who can win the seat.

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“We will use the formula of which party can win. On principle, seats that were won by PH will remain with the coalition. There is no need to fight for the seat only to lose the election,” he said.

When asked whether Selangor Umno will put forth a menteri besar candidate, Jamal said this will be determined by the party that wins the most seats and by the Sultan of Selangor.

“We do not daydream. We realise we have been rejected three times by the people of Selangor.

“If we are only contesting five or 10 seats, how can we have a poster boy?” he asked.

On Jan 14, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli predicted that a PH-BN pact could potentially win 53 out of 56 state assembly seats.

Besides Selangor, state polls are also due to be held in Kedah, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan, and Terengganu within the next four months, as the respective state legislative assemblies come to the end of their term in June. - FMT