LENGGONG: Perak Umno has denied claims that the party is working to attract several Pakatan Harapan state assemblymen into its fold.
Its state chairman Datuk Saarani Mohamad said there was no truth to such claims, said to have been made by a PH assemblyman.
He said officially, Umno had never made such move and that he as the state party chairman, had never approached any state assemblymen for such purpose.
“I was made to understand that the person who made the claims was from PH. I did not, which means Umno did not make any such move officially.
“We had never contacted him, we never did,” he told reporters today.
Saarani also denied there was an attempt to engage any of the PH assemblymen, despite Muafakat Nasional (MN) having 28 assemblymen in the state assembly and only needed two representatives from PH to jump ship to form a new state government.
However, he said the party has no issue if any of the PH state assemblymen wanted to join MN.
“If the existing assemblymen are willing to be with MN, then they can come and declare their willingness to be with us without any conditions.” he said.
Saarani also reiterated that Perak PH government had tumbled after Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) withdrew from PH at the federal level.
He added that Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, despite claiming to have the full support of PH assemblymen and the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah, has yet to call up any of the assemblymen to ascertain the status.
Saarani said as the state opposition leader, he had been summoned by the state ruler on Thursday.
He said MN has decided to leave the matter to the wisdom of the sultan to determine which bloc should lead the state government, provided those involved could prove the backing of at least 30 assemblymen.