Selangor Umno hands local council posts back to PH

The party’s state chairman Megat Zulkarnain Omardin says it decided to do so to rebuff claims it was being ‘greedy’ and ‘demanding’.

(FMT) – Selangor Umno has decided to hand back the 20 local council posts to Pakatan Harapan, but denied doing so as a sign of protest.

Selangor Umno chairman Megat Zulkarnain Omardin said the decision to return the posts to PH was to rebuff claims it was “greedy” and “demanding”.

However, Megat said Umno wants all 373 village development and security committee (JPKK) chairman posts.

“We want PH to take care of the urban areas, while Umno can oversee the villages.

“We will inform party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of the decision tomorrow,” he told reporters here today.

Malaysiakini recently reported that the state government could not finalise the appointment of local councillors as Umno had refused to accept menteri besar Amirudin Shari’s offer on the matter.

Selangor Umno had asked for 24 local council posts before this was negotiated down to 20.

On Friday, FMT reported that many in Selangor PH were unhappy over concessions granted to Umno, its long-time foe turned partner in the federal unity government.

A Selangor executive councillor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Umno was being “too demanding” despite only winning two seats in last year’s state election.

The source went on to say that Umno had previously made demands over exco roles and village chief positions, with the latest “flare-up” being Umno’s supposed demand of 20 councillor posts across all local councils in Selangor.

Megat said the decision to hand back the local council posts was agreed upon by all 22 divisions in the state at a meeting last night.

He said Selangor Umno had yet to choose anyone for the said posts.

He insisted that the party was not being demanding when pushing for the quota, saying they were only negotiating for the posts.

He said that 20 out of the 288 local council posts came up to only 7%.