Will Zahid Heed Calls From Within Umno For Him To Resign?
The Umno president’s own Bagan Datuk outing saw him win by a razor thin majority of 348 votes.
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‘Returning the mandate to the rakyat’ was the basis of Umno insisting the 15th General Election (GE15) be held this year. Even so, the views within the party were split.
Leading the charge for GE15 to be held immediately was Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Perhaps they were riding high on the hope that Malaysians will return them to Putrajaya after successful state elections post-GE14 which saw them rise to resounding victories in Johor and Melaka.
Wanting a strong majority to form the federal government, Ahmad Zahid led BN into GE15, which was held amidst the northeast monsoon season and saw the polling for one parliamentary seat (Baram) suspended midway due to bad weather.
The outcome for BN was far worse than their performance in GE14 where they lost a federal election for the first time.
Not only did they lose again, but they also lost three state assemblies which had been under them prior to dissolution last month.
BN went from winning 79 parliamentary seats in GE14 to a mere 30 last night. Even the two postponed parliamentary seat elections (Padang Serai and Baram) would not help them.
Not only did BN and Umno fare poorly, Ahmad Zahid’s own Bagan Datuk outing saw him win by a razor thin majority of 348 votes.
This speaks volumes as Bagan Datuk has been his stronghold since 1995. The lowest majority for him prior to GE15 was in 2013 but even then he still managed to win by 2,108 votes.
With no one coalition able to obtain a simple majority to form a government, Ahmad Zahid is now faced with calls from within Umno for him to resign.
Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan who lost in Alor Gajah resigned from his post today while calling for Ahmad Zahid to take responsibility and do the same.
Umno Youth exco Datuk Muhamad Muqharabbin Mokhtarrudin also called for Ahmad Zahid to step down.
Earlier, Johor Menteri Besar and state BN election director Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi urged for the same thing, saying that former Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak had also stepped down after their GE14 defeat.
Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim who was dropped by BN for the Arau seat made the same call. This was after he successfully retained the seat, but under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) ticket.
So will Ahmad Zahid step down? Or will he ignore the calls and remain as Umno president until the next party election?
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