BN secretary-general Zambry Abdul Kadir said after a coalition leadership meeting tonight that “all applications are currently being refined by BN’s secretariat”.

He expressed the council’s appreciation of all the parties who had applied but revealed little else.

MCA president Wee Ka Siong and MIC president SA Vigneswaran would only confirm that there were six applicants.

PBM is led by Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, who said on Tuesday that her party would accept whatever decision BN made about its application, made in July.

A decision had been expected at today’s BN leadership meeting.

However, some BN figures such as Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil have cautioned the coalition against accepting PBM, a party he described as comprising “liars and traitors”.

Zuraida, who is plantation industries and commodities minister in the federal Cabinet, had been appointed PBM’s president-designate in June, a month after she resigned from Bersatu, a member of the governing coalition.

She was previously head of Wanita PKR and a vice-president of the party but left in 2020 to support the Bersatu-led Perikatan Nasional government.

BN forms Puteri wing

Zambry said the Supreme Council had agreed to establish the BN Puteri wing to coordinate women’s youth movements of all component parties.

Puteri Umno leader Zahida Zarik Khan was appointed as Puteri BN chief.

The Supreme Council also decided to extend the appointment of Hishammuddin Hussein as BN treasurer-general for two years. Hishammuddin, who is Sembrong MP, replaced Tengku Adnan Mansor in October 2020.