DPM Zahid refutes speculation of him having cancer, stepping down as UMNO president

"I don't know about my resigning (as UMNO president), but I did undergo prostate surgery, don't speculate. Alhamdulillah, I'm healthy now," he said when met by reporters after launching the Polytechnic Transformation 2023-2030 here today.

He said this response to media reports that he would step down as UMNO president due to health problems.

The deputy prime minister returned to work last Friday (Dec 1) after recovering from the surgery. His first business was attending the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Commenting on the Kemaman parliamentary by-election results, Ahmad Zahid, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman said the victory by PAS could not be considered a referendum by the people.

"We cannot consider it a referendum...How could 141,000 voters in Kemaman be considered a public referendum? They should stop daydreaming," he said.

According to him, based on the results, there was no increase in support for the PAS candidate in the Kemaman by-election and about 10,000 of the BN voters did not go to the polls.

PAS retained the Kemaman parliamentary seat after its candidate, Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar won with a majority of 37,220 votes, after obtaining 64,998 votes.

He defeated BN candidate Gen (Rtd) Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor who garnered 27,778 votes.

Following the victory by PAS, its secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan was reported to have claimed that the 37,000-vote majority won by PAS was a referendum of the public's disapproval of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's leadership of the country.

He said the victory was an endorsement of the Islamist party's candidate and signalled the surge in public support for the Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal Opposition coalition.