Why would Umno not want elections now?
Malaysia is rife with talks of a new government or a possible snap poll with a possible general elections.
The Prime Minister, cornered by demands from the Umno party, and with Anwar Ibrahim claims, could go for polls.
PM Muhyiddin Yassin is not having it easy these days, though he is going around as if nothing is happening.
While Anwar is waiting for a sign form the Palace, some analyst believe both Anwar and Umno wants snap polls.
Umno is in a strong position to win more seats in the Parliament in the event of a snap election.
It has said it will not give way to Muhyiddin’s Bersatu in terms of seat allocation in the event of an election.
Hence, for Muhyiddin, it is better not to have a snap poll while his party is not sure how many seats it may get from its partners.
The party may claim it has a sufficient number of MPs on its side, but since most of them jumped from Umno, things may be tricky.
INTENSE PRESSURE
Reports are the Umno grassroot and some leaders and MPs of the party are pressing leader Zahid Hamidi to quit the government.
If that was to happen, the Umno would cause the collapse of the Muhyiddin regime.
Muhyiddin knows that he needs the crucial Umno support to win in the elections. But with Umno looking at Anwar as an option to remain in power, things might get more complicate for the PM.
Umno leaders has said they will take away the seats of the MPs who jumped ship from the party to Bersatu. Bersatu is Muhyiddin’s party.
That will leave Muhyiddin with seats the Bersatu won in 2018 and the seats held by ex-Keadilan MPs who left Anwar’s party.
They are now Bersatu members and they would want to contest in the same seats they won in 2018.
This leaves the Bersatu with less than 20 seats to contest. Not a good sign for Muhyiddin to remain as PM after a snap poll.
Usually, it is the party with the most MPs that holds the PM post. With the Pakatan Harapan winning in 2018, a revolution has happened.
One of the smallest party in the coalition, then Bersatu under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, got the PM post.
NO SIGNS UMNO QUITTING GOVERNMENT
It was a great privilege done by the PH partners to Mahathir. But after almost two years, let them down when he quit as PM.
While Zahid is facing intense pressure in Umno, some MPs gave him a deadline to pullout from the PN.
The Perikatan Nasional regime is probably living its last days if the Umno were to pull out. And Zahid would be saving his post as leader of the party altogether.
But there are no signs the Umno is either pulling out of the government or kicking Zahid out as leader.
Zahid has a slew of court cases to fight off. With the added pressure from the party, he may find it tougher in the coming days.
Nevertheless, the question is very relevant. The Umno is winning by-elections all over the place. It contributed largely in defeating the PH ally Warisan in Sabah, why would it not want snap polls, now?