TANAH Merah MP Ikmal Hisham Abd Aziz became the latest Umno lawmaker to leave Barisan Nasional and go independent with talk that another six will follow suit today.

Ikmal, who is also the Umno Tanah Merah division chief, made the announcement today at the division’s meeting.

“I am resigning as the division chief and am also leaving Umno. I leave it in the hands of God. Thank you everyone,” he told the members.

His deputy, Mohd Almidi Jaafar, takes over as division chief.

Ikmal’s departure from BN leaves the coalition with 45 seats in Parliament. BN won 79 seats in the 14th general election.

With his resignation, Umno is down by 12 lawmakers from the 54 seats it won in GE14.

Umno is bracing for further resignations today.

Larut MP Hamzah Zainudin is expected to announce his resignation soon. It is learnt that he has called for an emergency meeting later today.

Four other Umno lawmakers – Rosol Wahid (Hului Terengganu), Jalaluddin Alias (Jelebu), Shabudin Yahaya (Tasek Gelugor) and Salim Sharif (Jempol) – are also rumoured to be leaving the party today. – December 14, 2018.