BN is “suffering” without its customary two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat, said Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said this is because it is unable to amend the Federal Constitution and create new parliamentary constituencies.

This means the number of parliamentary seats is not in keeping with the population growth, and BN cannot provide sufficient seats for its component parties.

"We are suffering in the Dewan Rakyat because we are unable to amend our constitution.

“We have only 222 parliamentary seats. The growth of the population has moved up to at least, according to fatality-to-fertility rate, three percent, but we could not move up.

“We could not increase the number of seats.” he said in a speech at the BN component party myPPP annual general meeting today.

He said this makes it difficult to “share new seats” with party myPPP.

However, he promised to allocate myPPP one parliamentary seat if BN regains two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat in the 14th general election.

"But you have to prove it to me. You'd have to work hard. Don't forget we'd have to work smart, in order to be (successful) in our effort," he said in a speech in Kuala Lumpur today.

The People’s Progressive Party was recently rebranded myPPP, with M Kayveas as its president.

While conceding that he is not the Number 2 person in Umno, he promised that he would put in a good word for myPPP if the party works hard, so to ensure that it can contest in a winnable seat in the upcoming election.

BN and its predecessor the Alliance has had held a two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat for most of its reign until the 2008 general election.

The last time myPPP had won a parliamentary seat was in the 2004 general election, where it garnered a single seat.

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