THE next general election is close, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.

“As such, we must work as if elections will be held tomorrow. It won’t be long,” he told Barisan Nasional (BN) members during the coalition’s Selangor convention in Shah Alam today.

“I cannot reveal more but elections are not too far off. We are ready and I hope you will promote the government’s good news,” the Umno vice-president said.

He added that BN has already lost three elections in Selangor: in 2008, 2013 and 2018.

“Yet now, people are saying they no longer believe in Pakatan Harapan. As such, this is our chance,” he said.

Incidentally, Ismail’s promise to the opposition not to dissolve Parliament ends today. 

He said BN supporters should use social media to help regain Selangor, not to speculate about the coalition’s internal problems.

Earlier, he told delegates why he had to sign a memorandum of understanding with PH.

“When I became prime minister, we had two major issues to resolve: the Covid-19 pandemic and the economy.

“While we watched the country enter the endemic phase, we had to stabilise our politics so that investors would return.

“The MOU was what was needed to stabilise politics,” he said.

Through the MOU, he said the government was able to pass the anti-party hopping bill in Parliament last week.

“Now we also want to enact a political funding bill so that political financing activities” are clean and not subject to the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, he added.

During his speech, Ismail said Umno decided to work with Bersatu to form the government, because BN had suffered when they were out of government, and so too had Malaysians under the PH government.

“DAP dominates PH and our decision was to overthrow the DAP government, which was a burden to the country,” Ismail said. – July 31, 2022.