KUALA NERANG, Oct 16 — The Umno Supreme Council (MT) has never issued any directive for the party divisions to move a motion of support on the candidacy of Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as Prime Minister after the 15th General Election (GE15) at their respective meetings, said its vice-president Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.

On the contrary, he said, most of the party divisions did the motion on the matter, but it was made on their own initiative.

"There was no instruction, it is up to the respective Umno divisions. So, yesterday, most of the Umno divisions held their meeting and tabled several motions, one of them is for Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to become the ‘poster boy’ (for GE15) and the candidate for the prime minister’s post after the election,” he added.

He told reporters this after attending the Academic Excellence Award presentation of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kuala Nerang here, today.

He said the decision by the Umno divisions concerned was also in line with the decision made by the party’s Supreme Council of Barisan Nasional (BN) were to win the election.

When asked whether the motion would create a ‘conflict’ with Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Mahdzir said even Ahmad Zahid supported Ismail Sabri.

"There is no conflict with the president as the president himself agreed to name Ismail Sabri as prime minister (candidate),” he added.

Meanwhile, on BN’s target in Kedah, Mahdzir said BN is confident of winning more than the two existing parliamentary seats.

For the record, Kedah has 15 parliamentary seats with seven seats currently held by PH, PAS (three), Pejuang (three) and BN (two). — Bernama