A VERY SERIOUS ACCUSATION AT MUHYIDDIN? An Umno leader is plotting to topple the govt - Zahid

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has claimed that an Umno leader is leading an attempt to topple the government.

Citing "trusted sources", Zahid said there is an attempt to obtain statutory declarations (SD) of opposition MPs to claim that they have the voice of the majority.

"As the home minister, it has come to my knowledge that there are efforts to topple the current government... I can smell it (the efforts)," he said in his speech before officiating the Ampang Umno annual general meeting today.

"There is an effort by certain leaders to obtain the SDs of MPs and an effort to get the support of BN MPs to topple the government using the backdoor.

"I obtained this information from very trusted sources. The strange thing is, this effort is being spearheaded by one Umno-BN leader," he said.

Zahid, however, believes that this plan would be out in the open soon.

"As the deputy prime minister, as the vice president of Umno, I will not allow this to happen," Zahid affirmed.

Commenting on the opposition, Zahid said although it had lost in the last general election, it claimed that it has the support of the majority of the rakyat.

"BN won due to winning the most parliamentary seats while the popularity vote was supposedly won by them.

"But we follow the British (parliamentary) system. It's not the amount of votes that is considered as the majority," he said.

Umno currently holds 88 parliamentary seats out of 222.

'It can lead to political turmoil'

Zahid Hamidi

Meanwhile, Zahid said if it was indeed true that there were efforts to topple the government, Zahid asked that leaders from all levels of leadership to ensure that this does not occur.

"This is something serious. I don't want to mention that person's name, but this thing is happening.

"Lawyers are preparing a 7-page memorandum with yellow papers attached with the SDs to be presented to state that they have the voice of the majority.

"Something this serious will lead to a national political turmoil. They are not willing to wait for the next election, they want to use backdoor means," he said.

Zahid however said he believes BN members would not fall for such "backdoor tactics".

Rumours had swirled that Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin and key opposition leaders had conspired to oust Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

However, this was denied by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who is said to have met the former deputy prime minister together with PKR deputy president Azmin Ali to hatch a no-confidence vote against Najib in Parliament.

Blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin had claimed that Muhyiddin (photo) had plotted with Azmin and Lim to oust Najib and he is now paying the price for it.

Muhyiddin however, has denied conspiring with opposition leaders to call for a no-confidence vote against Najib. - M'kini