Saarani gets support to become new Perak Menteri Besar?

IPOH:Support for Perak UMNO Chairman, Datuk Saarani Mohamad to be appointed as the new Perak Menteri Besar is seen to be stronger as the number of Perak State Assemblymen (ADUN) who are believed to have signed statutory statements (SD) has now increased from 15 to 26 people.

According to a Sinar Harian report today quoting an UMNO assemblyman who declined to be named, all UMNO assemblymen have signed the SD as expressing full support for Saarani to form a new government in the state.

He said an assemblyman from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) who left his old party to support the re-appointment of former Perak Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu during the 'Sheraton Move', last February, also took the same action.

He said, UMNO only needed the support of four more Bersatu assemblymen including Ahmad Faizal himself to enable UMNO to join Bersatu to form a new government.

"However, the Sultan of Perak definitely wants the government to be more stable. For that reason, PAS needs to make a decision immediately, whether to support the new government led by UMNO or not," he said.

Earlier, local newspapers reported that the Perak Bersatu Secretary, Datuk Zainol Fadzi Paharudin claimed that a total of 15 UMNO ADUNs had signed SDs in support of Saarani as the new Perak Menteri Besar.

Last Friday, Ahmad Faizal, who is also the deputy president of Bersatu, lost the support of the majority after the motion of confidence in him did not get the support of the majority of Perak state assemblymen.

The motion of confidence brought by Datuk Abd Manaf Hashim (BN-Pengkalan Baharu) in the Perak State Assembly (DUN) got 10 votes in support, 48 votes against while one vote was spoilt in a bloc voting conducted.

According to Zainol Fadzi, the riddle about the Menteri Besar candidate was not a secret because several state assemblymen had signed SDs in an initial meeting since the motion of confidence was submitted.

Apart from Saarani, among the other names associated with the number one position of the Perak state government were former Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir (BN-Pangkor) and Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya (BN-Rungkup).

In the meantime, the unnamed Umno assemblyman claimed PAS’ stand which was difficult to predict, has strengthened the theory that the Malay party was having difficulties in accepting the appointment of UMNO leaders to high positions at the state and Federal level.

He said, taking into account the current situation, it was very likely UMNO will not cooperate with PAS in the 15th General Election (GE-15) if the party still refused to compromise.

"Even if there is a coalition government between UMNO and Pakatan Harapan (PH), the cooperation agreement is limited up to GE-15 only. During GE-15, each of them will go it alone," he said.

When asked about the fate of Ahmad Faizal, the UMNO assemblyman was confident that the Tambun Member of Parliament would be offered a full ministerial post in the Federal government as he was the second most important individual in Bersatu.