KUALA TERENGGANU: Pas and Umno need to discuss how to allocate the 32 state seats and eight parliamentary seats in Terengganu for the next general election, the state Assembly was told today.
Hulu Besut (BN) assemblyman Nawi Mohamad said the even number of state and parliamentary seats and the fact that Pas and Umno were the only dominant parties involved in straight fights made Terengganu a unique state with strong character to realise the Muafakat Nasional initiative.
“We need to settle the seat allocations early but we can face each other in all 32 state seats in a brotherly contest and whoever wins the most seats can be made the menteri besar while the leader from the loser pool can become the deputy menteri besar.
“And, in the spirit of Muafakat Nasional, the executive councilors’ positions can be equally represented by capable assemblymen from both parties,” he said during the debate on the State Budget for 2020.
Nawi said should Umno win the most seats then the menteri besar should be from the party and a deputy menteri besar post needs to be created for Pas.
Another possibility, he said, was for the positions of menteri besar and deputy menteri besar to be rotated among the two parties after two or three years of holding the posts.
“I can see a lot of benefits from Muafakat Nasional because it will become a platform for us to strengthen cooperation in areas where we can help the people and keep unnecessary remarks away from campaigns.
“Such cooperation can also filter down to agencies like the MPKK (Village Community Management Council).
“By coming to an early agreement, we can project stability to investors who will readily come to Terengganu after the next general election because they will know that the government has established the cooperation framework for them (investors) to be confident,” he said.
Nawi said Terengganu could set a good example for other states because the focus would be on stability and development.
