Zahid vows to work towards regaining people's confidence in Umno

Amid louder calls for him to step down, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has vowed to march on and “do more” to help the party regain confidence.

He said it was not the first time an Umno president was called to resign following a poor electoral showing but said it should be the collective responsibility of the party’s leadership.

“While I take responsibility for the outcome of the elections, as Johari pointed out, it should be the collective responsibility of Umno leadership,” he said, as quoted by The Star.

Zahid was referring to Umno vice-president Johari Abdul Ghani, who on Sunday said all Umno leaders must take responsibility for the party’s poor results in the six state elections last week.

The state polls on Saturday saw Umno win a mere 19 state assembly seats across Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Penang, and Kelantan.

The party also recorded its worst performance by failing to wrest or retain any seats it contested in Terengganu and Kedah.

However, it secured 14 seats in Negeri Sembilan and two seats each in Penang and Selangor. In Kelantan, the party only won the Galas state seat.

Following this, there were renewed calls for party reform, including for Zahid to take responsibility by stepping down as Umno president.

Grassroots confusion over DAP cooperation

Zahid told the English daily that he was aware of such calls and in response, the deputy prime minister pledged to work towards regaining the people’s confidence with the help of other Umno leaders.

“We will scrutinise our approach and strategies. We will adopt new ones so we can win over the hearts and minds of voters again,” he reportedly said.

According to Zahid, the party needs to address confusion among Umno members over its decision to cooperate with DAP.

While efforts had been made prior to the state polls to explain the matter, he believed more should be done.

“We did several sessions to explain this at the divisional level. Perhaps, the message did not reach the grassroots or maybe it needs to be further explained at that level.” - Mkini