DAP wants one Penang exco post for Umno

DAP has agreed to allocate one Penang exco position for Umno.

The decision was made at a central executive committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur tonight.

"There are two BN candidates who won in Penang, so we will appoint a BN representative from Umno to sit on the state executive council," said DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke.

Penang is headed by DAP's Chow Kon Yeow.

The two BN candidates who won seats in Penang on Saturday were Reezal Merican Naina Merican (Bertam) and Rashidi Zinol (Sungai Acheh).

Previously, it was speculated that Reezal, who is a former minister, would be given a deputy chief minister spot in the state government.

The move to give Umno a seat in the Penang state government comes at a crucial time.

Disastrous state polls for Umno

Saturday's six state elections had mostly been disastrous for Umno - the only BN party to contest.

The party was wiped out in Terengganu - as was Pakatan Harapan - as well as in Kedah.

Its only success was in Negeri Sembilan where Umno won 14 out of 31 seats now held by the Harapan-BN pact.

The electoral drubbing had stirred rebellion within Umno, with some like supreme council member Isham Jalil calling for the party to review its relationship with DAP.

Quizzed about this, Loke downplayed it as an individual's suggestion to his party.

He stressed that cooperation within the federal coalition government will continue and that the cabinet meeting on Wednesday would proceed as usual.

Isham had said that part of the reason Umno performed poorly on Saturday was that the party's grassroots were still uncomfortable with DAP.

As such, he said that Umno should review whether or not it should reserve cooperation with DAP strictly within the confines of working in the government, but not during elections.

Meanwhile, Loke also declined to comment on the pressure within Umno for its president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to resign over Saturday's poor results.

"We will not comment, because we do not meddle in the affairs of other parties," he said.

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