KUALA LUMPUR: The four-day 2022 Umno General Assembly, which kicks off today, will focus on the party's way forward following their crushing defeat in the 15th General Election (GE15).
Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said the party was also set to look into the "extraordinary" circumstances it faced during the nationwide polls held on Nov 19 last year.
"We will discuss what we have learnt from GE15, even though we won in seven by-elections and two state elections before that. Why were we not able to repeat this success?
"There must be an extraordinary reason that this happened, which caused Umno to lose...we only won 26 seats, plus the four from other Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties," he told reporters here, today.
He also reiterated that Umno did not invite other political parties to its general assembly, adding that it only sent out invitations to BN component parties MCA, MIC, and PBRS, and also Friends of BN.
"Parties involved in the unity government are not invited this time. We (Umno) would like to resolve issues in front of us first."
Unlike the past general assemblies, the 2022 edition would only see debates on the Presidential policy address.
Citing time restrictions, Ahmad had previously said this was also due to the fact that Umno was not fully involved in the unity government.
In the past, when Umno was leading the government, delegates would debate on matters pertaining to economy, education and religion, among others.
The general assembly was originally scheduled for Dec 21-24, but was postponed as the dates coincided with the school holidays.
Ahmad, who is also Pontian member of Parliament, said the nearly 3,000 delegates who would be convening in the World Trade Centre this week would also touch on how the party could strategise to face the next six state elections.
Umno's party polls must be held before May 19 this year. The elections had been due in 2020, but had been deferred due to the movement restrictions during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The party had previously denied reports that there were any discussions for the top two party positions not to be contested in the next party polls.
On Dec 26, Ahmad had said the decision on the matter would only be decided during a special Supreme Council meeting tomorrow (Jan 12).
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