UMNO Members of Parliament will not be forced to toe the party line when voting in Parliament, said party secretary-general Ahmad Maslan.

He said that they were free to vote according to their discretion as was decided at the party’s Supreme Council meeting yesterday.

“The Umno Supreme Council has made decision that during the Parliament sitting, Umno MPs can use their own discretion in a voting session.

“However, it is understood that the party’s decisions must be considered when carrying out their responsibilities,” Ahmad said in a statement.

He also said that Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had congratulated party vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob on his appointment as deputy prime minister.

Zahid yesterday said that the party had decided to withdraw its support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, and said an interim prime minister must be appointed soon to overcome the country’s health and economic crises.

Earlier today, former prime minister Najib Razak said Umno’s decision was only to retract support for Muhyiddin and not for the Perikatan Nasional (PN) pact.

However, despite Zahid’s announcement, the majority of Umno and Barisan Nasional MPs continued to back Muhyiddin, resulting in Zahid’s words having no impact.

Earlier today, BN lawmakers said that they would continue to support the PN government.

They said this was following the decision made in the Umno Supreme Council meeting last night not to tie its lawmakers to the party’s decision.

The unsigned document said all BN lawmakers wanted to ensure the National Recovery Plan was realised to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic.

“At a time when the nation is facing health and economic crises, it is more important to solve the people’s woes than being involved in a political game.

“As such, we support Muhyiddin Yassin as the prime minister to continue the people’s agenda,” they said. – July 8, 2021.