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KUALA LUMPUR – Barisan Nasional (BN) is keeping the door open to discussions with other parties to ensure a stable government, the coalition’s supreme council has decided.
In a statement, BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir said this was in addition to not supporting Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister candidate.
“Not a single BN MP has given support to Muhyiddin as candidate for the 10th prime minister, and this has been conveyed to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.
“The BN Supreme Council also made the open stand to continue discussions with relevant parties to ensure a stable government can be formed,” Zambry said.
As such, BN urges all parties to remain calm and observe a cooling-off period given the current political situation, he added.
At 2pm earlier, as the deadline expired for all coalition heads to submit to Istana Negara their respective positions on the numbers needed to form a new government and a prime minister candidate, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had tweeted that BN chose to remain an opposition coalition neither siding with PN nor Pakatan Harapan to form a new government.
Other BN leaders, such as the heads of MCA and MIC, had also said the same thing.
The BN leadership had deliberated over the last two days on PH’s offer to form a unity government after the results of GE15 yielded a hung Parliament.
BN only won 30 seats, while PH won 82 and PN 73.
Political coalitions were given an initial deadline of 2pm yesterday to present to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong their numbers and their prime minister candidate to form a new government. That deadline was extended to 2pm today. – The Vibes, November 22, 2022