BUKIT Gantang MP Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal is the latest BN MP to leave Umno.

This leaves the Barisan Nasional lynchpin party with 52 members in Parliament.

In a live press conference aired on the Facebook page Perak Today, he said he will fax in his resignation, which is effective July 1, to Umno headquarters.

He also said he was not joining any other political party after leaving Umno.

“I am not joining anybody. I am going to be an independent,” he said

His decision to leave comes three days after his fellow Bagan Serai MP Noor Azmi Ghazali quit the party.

Syed Abu Hussin said he was quitting Umno to protest the way members of his team who had delivered election results for BN in the May 9 election had been treated.

The Bukit Gantang division chief retained his post in recent division elections in a walkover but his team members had been rejected.

Changkat Jering assemblyman Ahmad Saidi Mohamad Daud lost in division elections for the Bukit Gantang Umno youth chief post.

Another was Trong assemblywoman Jamilah Zakaria whom Syed Abu Hussin said could not even offer herself for any positions because there was no opportunity.

“Two elected representatives with great potential, YB Saidi and YB Jamilah, have found themselves having no place in the wings’ leadership,” he said.

“That is a huge slap on me. What signal are the grassroots leaders sending to me, and to the people who voted for these two elected reps who now have no place in the party wings’ leadership?

“I am very disappointed. Our victory (in GE14) was huge but not appreciated by some in Bukit Gantang Umno despite the hardship we went through to deliver the seats,” he said.

In the May 9 polls, BN in Bukit Gantang – under Syed Abu Hussin’s leadership – finally made a clean sweep in the parliamentary seat that had been held by PAS since 2008. He won with a comfortable majority of 4,089 votes.

BN also won all three state seats in the parliamentary constituency – Kuala Sepetang and Changkat Jering, which were previously held by PKR and PAS, and Trong.

Syed Abu Hussin said leading up the GE14, there was strong support from the grassroots but the internal tussle started with the party election.

He hoped voters could accept his decision to quit the party, promising that he would continue to serve his constituency and that he would hold dialogues with them. – June 27, 2018