He said nothing has changed as far as his selection as the candidate for the prime minister’s post is concerned, adding that it was clearly decided at the last Umno general assembly and was endorsed by the party’s Supreme Council in April.
“So far, the Supreme Council has not made any decision to change this.
“In addition, 156 out of the 191 Umno divisions recently passed a motion to support me as the prime ministerial candidate,” Ismail told reporters after submitting his nomination papers for the Bera parliamentary seat here.
“The decision has not been reversed and there was no meeting (within the party) that decided otherwise. Therefore, the earlier decision still stands.”
The party vice-president also denied rumours of a “statutory declaration” (SD) to nominate another prime minister candidate, which was allegedly signed by all Umno candidates. An image of that “SD” went viral on social media recently.
Ismail said the SD was signed to prevent the candidates from jumping parties in line with the Constitution (Amendment) Act (No.3) 2022 which came into force on Oct 5.
“In the past, the SD was akin to a resignation letter from our position as an MP or assemblyman if we jumped to another party. But now, since there is an anti-hopping act, the SD is based on that instead,” he said.
Asked about speculation of a pact between Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Anwar Ibrahim to form a government after the general election, Ismail said: “I’m not sure but we didn’t hear about it. There are all sorts of rumours.”
On the Bera seat, the prime minister said there is no such thing as an easy win despite being challenged by two new contenders.
Ismail, who is up against Asmawi Harun of Perikatan Nasional and Abas Awang from PH, said he could not afford to take the contest lightly as BN must not only ensure victory in Bera but also across the country in order to form a new government.
In the 2018 general election, Ismail retained the seat after defeating PKR’s candidate Zakaria Abdul Hamid and PAS’ Musaniff Ab Rahman with a 2,311-vote majority.
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