FORMER Ampang lawmaker Zuraida Kamaruddin has denied applying to re-join Bersatu, dismissing claims made earlier by the party’s youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal.

Zuraida said she will support Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the upcoming state elections but denied wanting to join Bersatu, a lynchpin party in the coalition.

“We will support PN in the upcoming state election but I’ve not stated anything on my decision or stance to re-join Bersatu.

“Instead, I will focus on a party that is multi-ethnic and has a multiracial background,” the former PKR lawmaker said in a statement today.

Zuraida said as of now, she has not made any decision and that it will be finalised when the right time comes.

The former housing and local government minister under Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration said she decided to support PN due to the unity government’s excessive failures.

She said that it was also a sentiment that is shared by many.

“The grassroots want us to unite to raise the voice of the people. Not only the voice of the Malays but the voice of all races,” she said.

Zuraida’s comments came following Machang lawmaker Wan Fayhsal’s claim that the former had applied to re-join Bersatu but was rejected because she refused to vacate her ministerial post when she first quit the party.

Besides serving as a minister in Muhyiddin’s government, she was also appointed plantation industries and commodities minister during the Ismail Sabri Yaakob administration.

Zuraida and several others, including Mohamed Azmin Ali, were expelled from PKR in February 2020 following the Sheraton Move. They then joined Bersatu in August 2020.

However, Zuraida left Bersatu in May 2022 to join Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) and stood under the party’s ticket in the last general election. She garnered fewer than 5,000 votes and lost her deposit.

In December last year, Zuraida and 10 others were sacked from PBM.

She has since joined Muafakat Nasional, the civil society group headed by former Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa, and was appointed its deputy president in January. – April 5, 2023.