MELAKA: Umno is confident that its political cooperation with Pas and Perikatan Nasional can be strengthened and extended to the federal level ahead of the 16th General Election.
Umno secretary-general Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the cooperation forged for the Melaka election had made more comprehensive progress compared with the understanding reached during the Negri Sembilan polls.
He said both coalitions were now coordinating their campaign efforts by bringing their operations rooms together and mobilising their respective party machinery jointly.
“This time, in the Melaka election, we have not only achieved cooperation and understanding in seats where we are not contesting against each other, but our party machinery is also working in an integrated manner.
“There are no separate operations rooms. Everything has been brought together, and even the Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings are being mobilised jointly.
“The liveliest ceramah are also those organised by Barisan Nasional and PN,” he told reporters when met at an event with Indian Muslim voters in Pengkalan Batu earlier.
Also present were BN chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma) president Datuk Seri Syed Ibrahim Kader.
BN candidate for Ayer Molek Datuk Mohd Ridhwan Mohd Ali, BN candidate for Pengkalan Batu Siti Aisyah Mahmood and PN candidate for Ayer Keroh Michael Gan were also present.
On the possibility of extending the cooperation to the national level, Asyraf Wajdi said he believed the current understanding had given both sides the confidence to formalise closer ties.
“With this level of understanding, we (Umno) are very confident that we can forge closer cooperation between BN and PN to face the General Election.
“In fact, this cooperation will not only extend to parliamentary seats, but also to states currently administered by PN (namely Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu),” he added.
In the Melaka election, BN is contesting 23 state seats, while PN is contesting five of the 28 seats. The Election Commission has set this Saturday as polling day.