KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin has today denied she had applied to rejoin Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, after a claim made by party Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal.

Zuraida said she is still aiming to focus on a multi-ethnic party, and would still support Perikatan Nasional (PN) — of which Bersatu is a lynchpin party — in the upcoming state elections this year.

"We have said we will support Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the upcoming state election but nothing on my decision or stance to rejoin Bersatu.

"Instead, I will channel my focus towards a party that has a multiracial background. The decision will be finalised when the time is right,” she said in a statement.

Zuraida said the decision to support PN was due to the excessive failure of the present administration, a concern she said was shared by all ethnic groups in Malaysia.

"That is why from the very beginning my focus was to join a multiracial party and that is why I left Bersatu and formed Parti Bangsa Malaysia,” she said.

Earlier, Wan Fayhsal was quoted saying Zuraida had applied to rejoin Bersatu, but was rejected as she refused to vacate her ministerial post when she initially quit the party.

Zuraida was formerly a minister of housing and local government under the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin administration, and later a minister of plantation industries and commodities under the Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob administration when she quit Bersatu.

She was formerly in PKR before she was expelled in February 2020 along with Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

She and others in the exodus from PKR would later join Bersatu in August 2020. However, after an internal altercation, Zuraida left Bersatu in May 2022 to join PBM.

A leadership tussle with PBM president Datuk Larry Sng before the 15th general election saw her suspended just before polling. Zuraida and 10 others were sacked from the party in December last year.

She has since joined Muafakat Nasional, the NGO headed by former Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa, and was appointed its deputy president in January.