UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he will leave it to the Muafakat Nasional (MN) Committee to decide on the participation of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) in the UMNO-PAS alliance.

“This committee has taken the best approach in cleansing the situation on the basis of political cooperation. Hopefully, this will give optimum results when the general election is held,” he said.

He said the committee is jointly chaired by UMNO deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and his PAS counterpart Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

He told reporters this after the launching of the Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth machinery for the Slim state by-election at Felda Residence Trolak here today.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is Bersatu president, said today that Bersatu had agreed to join MN and that its participation in the alliance would be finalised soon.

Muhyiddin said this in his message in conjunction with the Srikandi (Women), Armada (Youth) and division meetings of Bersatu today.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also BN chairman, said political parties wishing to work with BN should be sincere and be prepared to translate its intention into all forms of political cooperation, including at the Slim by-election.

He said any differences should be set aside because honesty and sincerity were important in any political partnership.

Earlier, in his speech, Ahmad Zahid urged the BN Youth machinery to work hard to ensure that BN candidate Mohd Zaidi Aziz wins all the 13 polling districts in the by-election.

"We want the 8,000 votes won by BN in GE14 to be maintained as a base. The 4,000 votes obtained by PAS and the 6,000 votes garnered by Bersatu then should also come to us,” he said.

The by-election is a three-cornered fight involving Mohd Zaidi and two independent candidates, former teacher S. Santharasekaran, 44, and lawyer Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi, 38, who is backed by the yet-to-be-registered Parti Pejuang Tanah Air. Polling is on Aug 29.

The by-election was called following the death of incumbent state assemblyman Datuk Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib of BN on July 15.

In GE14, Mohd Khusairi polled 8,327 votes to beat Bersatu’s Mohd Amran Ibrahim, who received 6,144 votes, and PAS' Muhammad Zulfadli Zainal, who obtained 4,103 votes./p

-- BERNAMA