Party deputy president Mohamad Hasan said based on the initial negotiation formula it used with its Barisan Nasional (BN) partners, PAS and PPBM, it would continue to hold on to the 55 seats it won in GE14.
“We want to retain and contest in the seats we won. We also want to contest in the seats where we were number two (second highest number of votes in GE14).
“We also find that there are seats our BN colleagues never won because voters there want a Malay candidate, for example,” he said at the Rembau Umno delegates’ meeting today.
Basically, he said the BN components have also agreed on the seat distribution formula, adding that in GE15, the coalition aimed to win to form the government.
“We must scrutinise every seat, geopolitics, voter pattern and locality,” said Mohamad, who is also the Rembau division chief.
Commenting on Umno election director Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s statement that the party would only work with PAS without involving PPBM in GE15, he said all decisions would be based on what the party’s leadership decides.
Asked on calls by several divisions to reject cooperation with PPBM to face GE15, Mohamad, who is also the party’s head for seat negotiations, said the party must first build up its own strength without having to reject such cooperation.
On the statement by BN secretary-general Annuar Musa that Umno would not be able to go it alone, he said the party also had its own strengths.
“Don’t say we cannot win if we are alone. We have been alone too all this while.
“In GE14, we made a little mistake. It is better if there is cooperation, but if there is none, we have to empower ourselves and the party,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Bera, Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob said efforts to strengthen cooperation among Malay-Muslim parties should be intensified to avoid a split.
The senior minister for security said a suitable formula was needed to ensure there would be no clashes among the parties in GE15.
“I understand that so far, negotiations on seat allocation are still ongoing because we are trying to avoid clashes among Umno, PAS and PPBM,” he said after launching the Bera division delegates’ meeting here today.
He also said that Bera Umno would continue to support any party that champions the Malay, Muslim and Bumiputera agendas, as well as adheres to the “No DAP, No Anwar” stand.