No secret pact with PH on formation of coalition government, claims Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has stressed that the party did not make any secret agreement with Pakatan Harapan (PH) regarding the formation of the government after the 15th General Election (GE15).

Speaking before 2,820 delegates at the 2022 UMNO General Assembly here today, the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman said UMNO’s teaming up with PH in forming the Unity Government was based on the initial understanding at the party level that no coalition could form the government on its own.

“First, we held separate discussions with PH and Perikatan Nasional (PN) two days after GE15, and we set out several key matters, including on the question of Islam, Malays and Bumiputeras, which should be jointly agreed to, and also the matter of formation of the Cabinet.

“In fact, in our proposals we demand that the government to be formed should not be identified with the name of any party and instead should be known as the Unity Government,” he said.

The deputy prime minister said PH responded in writing by expressing its agreement on the basic matters while PN was prepared to consider BN’s proposals. 

NMT as reported by Bernama