Umno Vice-President Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the party will conduct a post-mortem to identify what caused it to lose most of the seats it contested in the state elections on Saturday. 

Commenting on calls for Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to step down following the party’s poor showing in the state polls, Mohamed Khaled, who is also higher education minister, said there were many factors that could have influenced election results. 

“Let things settle (first), we will conduct a post-mortem and find our weaknesses,” he said. 

Umno won only 19 of the 108 state seats it contested: 14 in Negri Sembilan, two each in Selangor and Penang, and one in Kelantan.  

“Perhaps, for Umno voters, this is the first time they are working as a team while previously they used to fight against one another. This will all take time and only time will tell,” Mohamed Khaled told reporters after the launch of the 2023 National Food Security Conference today. 

Earlier, while speaking at the launch, Mohamed Khaled asked the participants to present five big ideas that could be game changers for the country’s food security. 

“Find new mechanisms or methods that are radical, practical and can really bring changes. However, we must drive and give added value in terms of food security and sustainable agriculture,” he said. 

The conference will carry out intensive discussions on national food security issues aimed at forging collaborations between public and private institutions towards achieving sustainable agriculture and stable food security. – Bernama, August 15, 2023.