BN’s position as party with most seats should be respected during GE15 seat allocation, says Annuar Musa

TANJUNG MALIM, Dec 20 — The seat allocation among Perikatan Nasional (PN) parties for the 15th general election (GE15) should take into account Barisan Nasional’s (BN) position as the party with the most seats in the government, said BN secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said BN was always open for discussions on the matter as long as the principles of its struggle were respected.

“We want the parties (in PN) to respect our position as the grand old party and give us a role befitting our status.

“BN will continue to carry out engagement with more parties ahead of GE15 and be more open especially with the 12 political parties in the PN government,” he told reporters after opening the IPF 28th general assembly at Dewan Tan Sri Haji Ghazali, Slim River here today.

Annuar said seat negotiations among BN component parties had been concluded, while at the level of Muafakat Nasional (MN), which consists of BN, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and PAS, it has yet to be completed.

On December 14, Annuar said BN had agreed that talks with Bersatu should be expedited to reach a consensus on the seats to be contested while it had reached 60 per cent to 70 per cent understanding with PAS after two rounds of talks.

On the proposal to include IPF as a BN component party, Annuar said the party would remain as friends of BN as no consensus had been reached among BN component parties on the matter.

However, he said BN chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi did not rule out the possibility of allowing IPF to contest in any seat which it has a good chance to win. — Bernama