Zahid, the Umno president, acknowledged that there were calls for BN to contest in GE16 on its own, but said the coalition is firm on continuing its alliance with PH.

However, he said BN’s political strategies for the general elections that follow will be determined by the electoral performance of the parties in the alliance, Berita Harian reported.

“We do not know how many seats we will have, and how many seats they will have.

“Remember that, in Malaysia, differences in views are conventionally based on differing party ‘colours’. We are willing to forget our different ‘colours’ for the sake of political stability,” he was quoted as saying.

The Umno-led BN played a crucial role in enabling Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to form the unity government in the wake of the 2022 general election, which resulted in a hung Parliament.

PH had won 81 parliamentary seats while BN won 30, in what was the latter’s worst electoral performance to date.