Ismail Sabri: I'm on good terms with Zahid, no split in Umno leadership

GE15 | Ismail Sabri Yaakob said he has no disputes with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the pair are on good terms.

According to Bernama, he dismissed the alleged talk that there is a rift and conflict between Umno and other BN component parties, as well as between him and Zahid.

Ismail Sabri said the narrative played by the rivals that the BN candidate for prime minister after the 15th general election is Zahid is slander deliberately created to confuse the people and cause a rift in the coalition.

He expressed the hope that the slander could be well countered by the statements that had been made by the top BN leaders, including Zahid, MCA president Wee Ka Siong, MIC president SA Vigneswaran and Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan, where they dismissed talk of a change in the BN poster boy for GE15.

“The perception that the rivals are trying to create is purely false and slanderous and is intended to be nothing more than to cause rift and conflict in Umno.

“But, Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), the solidarity in Umno is sound and we are influenced by the perception brought on by the rivals.

“There is no rift in the Umno leadership, and there is no problem between me and Zahid,” Ismail Sabri told a press conference after a “Kenduri Rakyat” reception in Kampung Bohor Baharu, Kuala Bera.

Yesterday, Zahid reiterated the BN stand that Ismail Sabri remains the coalition’s sole candidate for prime minister in GE15.

BN rivals had also claimed that a vote for BN is a vote for Zahid, who is defending the Bagan Datuk parliamentary seat in Perak, to become the prime minister after the general election.

After last Saturday’s nomination process, the Umno vice-president reaffirmed that he is still BN’s prime minister candidate.

"I am still the poster boy and prime minister candidate…

"So far, there has been no decision from the Umno supreme council saying otherwise, and recently more than 156 out of 190 Umno divisions passed a motion to support me as the prime minister candidate.”

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