Zahid takes responsibility over Umno's defeat

PETALING JAYA - Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has taken full responsibility for the party's poor results in the state elections on Saturday.

Zahid said although Umno lost, it did not mean that he will step down from his position as the party's president.

"I am aware of such calls (for me to step down). I promise that with the help of the party leadership, we will do more to get back the people's confidence.

"We will look into approach and strategy to win the hearts of voters once again," he told The Star on Monday.

He was commenting on calls for him to resign as Umno president following the party's worst result in the state polls, only winning 19 out of 108 seats contested.

Umno also lost all the contested state seats in Terengganu and Kedah and only won two in Penang and Selangor as well as one in Kelantan while in Negeri Sembilan the party won 14 out of 17 seats contested.

Zahid said he was aware that there were also those from the party who wanted him to step down.

"This is not the first time the Umno president has been urged to step down.

“It has happened before to Pak Lah (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) and also to Datuk Seri Najib Razak when the election results are not in our favor," he said.

Abdullah resigned as prime minister and Umno president in 2009, a year after the 12th General Election (GE12) when Barisan Nasional (BN) showed poor performance.

In 2018, Najib resigned from his position as the party president after BN lost in the general election.

"Even though I am responsible for the election results, like what Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said, it should be the responsibility of the Umno leadership altogether," he said.

Zahid said among the issues that needed to be addressed at the moment was the cooperation between the party and DAP in the unity government.

“We had a session to explain this at the division level. Maybe the message did not reach the grassroots or may need to be explained further at that stage,” he added.