IPOH - Umno Perak unanimously supports Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to retain his position as the party president despite various calls for his resignation due to Umno's significant defeat in the recent state elections.
State Umno chairman Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said Umno's poor performance in the state elections in six states was not a solid reason for Zahid to step down from his position.
He pointed out that the defeats in the elections were not exclusive to Umno alone and have occurred in other parties before.
"Yesterday (Tuesday), I held a party liaison meeting and we unanimously support Zahid to continue as the president.
His argument was that for decades, DAP has not won any elections, but no one has demanded for Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang to resign.
He said for years, Pas has also faced repeated election losses, but no one has asked for Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang to step down.
"During the Johor state election, Barisan Nasional (BN) won. At that time, no other party demanded Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to resign. And most importantly, I recently checked the number of contested seats in the elections, 18 Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidates lost their deposits and no Umno candidate had lost their deposit. But why isn't anyone demanding for the PN chairman to resign," he said.
He said this after the seventh series of the Perak Meet the Customer Day at the Indera Mulia stadium here, today.
Meanwhile, Saarani said most of the calls for Zahid's resignation came from former Umno leaders who were no longer a party member, with some even joining the opposition.
"We see that those urging (for Zahid to resign) are Tan Sri Annuar Musa. He is not an Umno member and Khairy Jamaluddin is not an Umno member.
"So those who have left Umno should focus on their new party, Annuar should focus on Pas as he is a member of Pas, don't interfere with Umno. I also find it strange that those who left Umno keep on commenting about Umno. Is this what they call 'hatred resembles longing'?
"Furthermore, there is no guarantee that if Zahid resigns, Pas will support Umno or that Bersatu members will leave Bersatu and join Umno. We will not dance to their tune and my advice is that Umno members do not need to dance to the tune of those outside Umno," he said.
In the recent state elections held on Aug 12, Umno, representing Barisan Nasional (BN), contested in 108 state seats and won only 19 of them.
Their best performance was in Negeri Sembilan, where they won 14 out of 17 contested state seats.
Their performance in Penang and Selangor were less impressive, with only two seats won.
In Kelantan, the party lost six seats and now only controlled one seat, which was Galas, while in Kedah and Terengganu, they failed to win any seats.
Previously, PN chairman Muhyiddin urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Zahid to resign immediately following the rejection of Malay voters in the state elections.