The former Umno leader said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s claim that the latter had objected to such a move was false.

Annuar also said that both Mahathir, who was the prime minister, and Muhyiddin had denied hatching such a plot.

“Knowing Mahathir’s leadership style, if it’s true he wanted to ban Umno (when he was prime minister), no one could have stopped him.

“Especially not Anwar, whom Mahathir specifically did not involve in his government’s affairs,” the former Umno secretary-general said in a statement.

Annuar also questioned why Anwar did not have Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s support to become prime minister in 2020 if the PKR president had truly “saved” Umno from getting banned.

Instead, he said, Zahid first backed Mahathir to remain as prime minister before signing a statutory declaration supporting Muhyiddin to take over the top post.

“And Muhyiddin was the one who brought Umno into the government. In fact, in the end, he handed over the top post to Umno and Ismail Sabri Yaakob later became prime minister.”

On Sunday, Anwar claimed he was one of the PH leaders who objected to Mahathir and Muhyiddin’s plan to ban Umno after the 14th general election.

Annuar claimed the PH chairman was trying to win over the support of Umno members in the lead-up to the Aug 12 state elections. However, the former Ketereh MP said Umno members would not be easily wooed.

“Umno members know who is actually using and killing Umno,” he said.

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