KHAIRY Jamaluddin is piling pressure on Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, calling for his resignation and immediate elections after a fresh round of lawmakers’ exodus today.

The former Umno Youth chief and Rembau MP tweeted “Agreed. Immediate party election” in response to another user’s comment that all wings in the party and Supreme Council should demand Zahid’s resignation.

The user with the handle @SyedRifqi99 also said Umno must call for an immediate extraordinary general meeting and hold party elections to choose new leaders.

The person also said that only Umno members could save the party.

Khairy’s nod of approval to replace Zahid comes as more Umno MPs are said to be leaving Barisan Nasional today, following 12 others who left in stages since the 14th general election in May.

It leaves Umno with 42 parliamentarians out of the 54 federal seats it won in GE14.

Amid the defections, news leaked of attempts by Zahid to forge a tie-up with ruling parties, PKR and DAP, and with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim who is set to succeed Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister in about two years.

Grassroots leaders have panned Zahid’s plan, saying it showed how bereft of ideas the president was to revitalise Umno and steer it as an opposition party.

The latest lawmaker to quit today was Tanah Merah MP Ikmal Hisham Abd Aziz, who follows six MPs from Sabah who left BN two days ago.

Khairy today also re-tweeted a post that said “5 more to go, Larut, Hulu Terengganu, Jempol, Jelebu, Tasek Gelugor…” which are the names of federal constituencies held by BN.

The Rembau MP has said previously he has no intention of quitting Umno, even if he lost his bid for the party presidency.

Khairy ran for the top post in the June elections and competed against Zahid and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

He was among the first and most vocal calling for former president Najib Razak to quickly step down after BN lost in GE14, and in a post-election interview said that party leaders had been “drunk on our Kool-Aid” which made them blind to Umno’s faults and scandals that cost them federal power. – December 14, 2018.