Umno’s Muhyiddin meeting at Parliament House?
Azalina says it’s for convenience: with 50 MPs involved, all are needed against opposition ambush vote on Budget
(Free Malaysia Today) – With fears of an opposition ambush vote on the Budget in mind, an Umno supreme council meeting on the future of deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin will reportedly be held at Parliament House on Tuesday instead of at party headquarters.
Supreme Council member Azalina Othman was quoted as saying that the choice of Parliament House as the venue of the party meeting was because of the need for MPs of Barisan Nasional to be “on call” in case of opposition moves to vote down the Budget.
If the Budget fails in the Dewan Rakyat, the government is obliged by parliamentary convention to resign.
The Umno meeting involves more than 50 elected and appointed members and observers, and more than half of the Supreme Council are themselves MPs.
Azalina, who handles parliamentary affairs as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, was quoted as saying: “It makes my job easier having it in the Parliament area or else I may have to skip the supreme council meeting.”
She quipped that her only problem now was to find enough chairs for the meeting, according to Star Online.
“Personally, I am not for it,” she was quoted as saying. “Our focus now is on the Budget and we need every vote we can get from all our MPs to see the Budget through the final reading. That is my primary concern.”
The Budget is now at the committee stage in the Dewan Rakyat when MPs debate and vote on ministry allocations.
