KUALA LUMPUR: UMNO will mobilise its entire party machinery to help the Unity Government’s candidate win the Sungai Bakap state by-election.
UMNO Secretary-General Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the decision was made at the UMNO Supreme Council (MT) meeting chaired by UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at Menara Dato Onn here yesterday night.
“UMNO has named Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir (UMNO MT member) as the Director of Election for Barisan Nasional (BN) in Sungai Bakap, Datuk Musa Sheikh Fadzir (Penang UMNO Liaison Chief) as the Operations Director, and Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan (UMNO MT member) as the Head of the War Room for the by-election,“ he said in a statement yesterday night.
On June 12, former director of the Northern Branch of the Aminudin Baki Institute, Dr Joohari Ariffin, was announced as the Unity Government’s candidate for the Sungai Bakap by-election.
The Election Commission (EC) has set July 6 as polling day for the Sungai Bakap by-election, June 22 for nominations and July 2 for early voting.
The Sungai Bakap by-election is being held following the death of the incumbent Nor Zamri Mohd Nor from PAS on May 24 due to stomach inflammation.
In the Penang state election last August, Nor Zamri, who was Nibong Tebal PAS president, defeated PH candidate Nurhidayah Che Rose with a majority of 1,563 votes.
Additionally, Asyraf announced that the meeting also agreed that the UMNO General Assembly will be held from August 21 to 24, 2024.
In other developments, he said that the UMNO Supreme Council meeting tonight also discussed UMNO’s responsibility to assist the government in implementing the national Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Policy.
According to him, this effort is to ensure that the more than 250,000 TVET study places available at 1,345 TVET institutions nationwide are fully utilised by young people.
“UMNO also appreciates the Government’s response to UMNO’s proposal to establish the Gig Economy Commission.
“UMNO will continue to play a role through its leadership within the administration to ensure that the 1.16 million gig workers are protected and trained through various TVET upskilling and reskilling programmes via the National TVET Council, which is also spearheaded and chaired by the UMNO president,“ he said.
