SEREMBAN: Barisan Nasional needs to contest at least 115 seats in the next general election if it wishes to lead the Federal Government, says its deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
Mohamad said the matter was discussed recently during a Barisan retreat held to discuss the coalition's action plan and part of its rebranding exercise to face the coming polls.
"During the retreat, it was discussed how many seats Barisan should be contesting and in principle, we agreed to at least 115. However, this is not final due to the dynamics in politics," he told reporters after opening the Khatam Al-Quran event at the NSWO hall here.
Mohamad, who is also Umno deputy president, was responding to reports that the coalition had agreed to contest that many seats in GE16 during a meeting on Feb 28. Barisan, he said, had the right to plan for GE16 and other political parties should stay out of it.
"We can even decide to contest up to 130 seats. If we chose to contest only 80 for example, how are we to convince the voters that Umno was serious in wanting to form the government? Others should keep their noses out of this and take care of their own parties," he said.
In GE15 held in Nov 2022, Barisan contested 178 of the 222 parliamentary seats but won only 30, its worst electoral performance in history.
On a separate matter, Mohamad urged former Umno members to write to the party if they were keen to rejoin under the "Rumah Bangsa" platform for expelled or suspended members.
"Please do not play hard to get as we do not have time for that. There were many who were either expelled or suspended previously but have since returned to the party fold," he said.
Regarding the proposal to limit the Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar's tenure to two terms, Mohamad said Barisan was prepared to discuss the matter with Pakatan Harapan as part of the state government.
"We also need to know the reasons behind this as there are pros and cons and some may be of the opinion that we should not be too rigid," he said, adding that removing a top-performing Mentri Besar after two terms might not be a good move.
