KUALA LUMPUR – The establishment of Puteri Barisan Nasional (BN), which was approved today, is important as the party prepares for the upcoming 15th general election (GE15), said BN chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He said the approval, which will be sanctioned at the BN Supreme Council meeting in August, would also see new Puteri BN candidates nominated to contest in GE15.
“The reality before us is that if we want to win, we must feature more new faces as proven in the Melaka election, when 87% were new faces and we managed to win over two-thirds majority.
“The formula adopted in the Johor and Melaka polls was the best and we will do better than that. We prioritised fresh faces after learning from the political tsunami in GE14,” he told a press conference after officiating at the Puteri BN convention here today.
According to him, preparation for Puteri BN, a combination of the female youth wings of component parties such as Puteri MIC and Beliawanis (MCA) is at its optimum, showing the seriousness of the BN machinery in facing the challenges of the upcoming polls.
“I see that among the component parties, the effort to strengthen BN is clearer and definitely we must set aside our differences,” he said.
Meanwhile, commenting on the anti-party hopping bill that was passed, Zahid said the matter is a manifestation of the agreement of all political parties to ensure that the trust placed by the people in leaders is protected.
Earlier, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) 2022, which looked to create a provision prohibiting MPs from changing parties, received the support of more than two-thirds of MPs, with 209 out of 220 MPs being in favour. – Bernama, July 31, 2022
