KUALA LUMPUR – Not all is well in Umno as its number two revealed tonight that the party is still plagued with certain quarters who are sowing discord and confusion within its rank and files.
"I believe clarity on this matter is crucial. There are internal and external elements within the party whose task is to confuse party members.
"And I am responsible for clarifying this matter,” said deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan after officiating the party’s Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings general meeting scheduled tomorrow.
The perils of such infighting, Mohamad commonly known as Tok Mat underscored was evident in the party’s second electoral defeat in the 15th general election (GE15) where the party only has 26 parliamentary seats compared to 54 that it won in GE14.
"We were defeated for the second time after winning 13 general elections without any losses. Umno only won 26 seats out of 222 parliamentary seats. Or 11.7 per cent of the total parliamentary seats. I repeat, only 11.7 per cent.
"The total popular votes for the Barisan Nasional (BN) were only 3.65 million or 23 per cent of the total votes. Not even a quarter of the total votes despite BN contesting in 178 parliamentary seats,” he remarked.
For comparison, Tok Mat pointed out that Perikatan Nasional (PN) obtained 4.7 million votes or 30 per cent of the popular votes whereas Pakatan Harapan received 5.93 million votes or 38 per cent of the total seats.
"There was no significant increase in votes between BN's total votes in the 14th and 15th general elections. BN's total votes in both general elections were only around 3.5 million.
"This means we have reached a plateau with no substantial change or shift.
"BN did not win a single seat in Perlis, Terengganu, Kelantan, Penang, Selangor, Kedah, and Melaka. I repeat, not a single seat,” Tok Mat reiterated.
Despite its loss, Umno however, ultimately managed to form government with Pakatan Harapan as GE15 ended in a hung parliament where not a single party had enough numbers to form government on their own.