TAIPING, Jan 2 — Perak Umno will not compromise and let its five seats won in the last 14th General Election (GE14) to be contested by other parties in the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15).

Its chairman Datuk Saarani Mohamad said this was because all the seats involved were allocated to Umno, however, the party’s five elected representatives quit the party after GE14 and joined others.

Perak Umno is firm in this matter, he said in his speech at the Larut Umno division delegates meeting here, today.

The five seats are three parliamentary seats – Larut, Bagan Serai and Bukit Gantang – and two state seats, namely, Tualang Sekah and Sungai Manik.

Meanwhile, Saarani, who is also the Perak Menteri Besar, wants the state Umno to always be in the election mode.

This is because, he said, the movement to push for the legitimacy of the Perikatan Nasional government will continue and the only way to ensure stability is to hand over the mandate to the people to vote.

“Whether we want to or not, we need to be prepared.

“Although the Covid-19 pandemic does not allow elections to be held in the near future, we cannot allow ourselves to be trapped in this uncertainty. Umno at every level should always be placed in election mode,” he said. — Bernama