Home base: Mohamad is confident of taking Negri Sembilan.
SEREMBAN: All Barisan Nasional and “Friends of BN” parties will be asked to submit their wish list before the distribution of seats for the 15th General Election (GE15) is finalised, says Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
They are also asked to settle their internal problems.
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The Barisan deputy chairman and election war room head said this was necessary to ensure the coalition could field its strongest team to win the polls.
“We will need to have the right approach and strategies if we want to win Putrajaya.
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“The wish list will enable us to know each party’s strengths and weaknesses and come up with the right combination to win,” he told reporters after meeting state Barisan and Friends of BN leaders here.
Friends of BN comprises Makkal Sakti, Indian Progressive Front and Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress, Parti Cinta Malaysia, Malaysian Indian United Party and Parti Punjabi Malaysia.
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Mohamad said to date, only preliminary discussions had been held on the matter.
Asked if there would be seat-swapping, Mohamad said this, too, had not been finalised.
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“As of now it is status quo. But the Barisan leadership will finalise this once we get feedback from the respective parties,” he added.
Mohamad advised the parties to settle their internal problems if there were any, so they could focus on preparations for the polls which should be held within a year.
He said Barisan should also have a common centre in constituencies previously contested by its former allies such as Gerakan.
“Which party is eventually given the seat is not important.
“What is important is that we must have a common centre so we can get closer to the voters, understand their problems and then get them to come out on D-Day,” he said.
Asked if Barisan was confident of taking Negri Sembilan, Mohamad, who was a three-term mentri besar, expressed confidence, saying several seats were lost in the last polls due to internal problems.
Labu, Klawang, Lenggeng and Pilah were the seats Barisan could wrest from Pakatan Harapan, he added.
In the 2018 state polls, Pakatan won 20 seats while Barisan won 16.
In Johor Baru, state Barisan and Umno chairman Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad said he had been informed by the Barisan headquarters to look into seat negotiations of the 26 parliamentary seats with MCA and MIC.
“We are discussing seat allocations but I am confident and believe that Barisan will continue to be dominant in Johor.
“But that does not mean that we should take it easy as there are possibilities that some seats would see greater challenges,” he said.
He said the photographs that went viral of Umno’s top five leaders sitting together, no extension of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Opposition and the anti-hopping law, which has been passed at the Dewan Rakyat, were major signs that GE15 could be held sooner rather than later.
“These are signs that elections will be held soon. For example, the MOU between the Federal Government and Opposition was signed to ensure stability and Parliament could be under control.
“Now that the MOU will not be extended, there should be something to replace it that can guarantee stability, and what better way of providing stability than having an election,” he said after attending a dinner hosted by the Johor Media Club on Thursday.
Hasni also confirmed that Umno’s top leadership offered him to contest in a parliamentary seat in GE15 but declined to announce which seats he was eyeing.
“It is better for Barisan to finalise the seat allocation between component parties first, then we can start the process of identifying ideal candidates,” he said, adding that Barisan is expecting to field 70% new faces in Johor for the polls.
