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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has no
plans to resign, his spokesman said Sunday, despite leading the
ruling coalition to its worst ever election results.
“He has no intention to step down,” the
premier’s spokesman Kamal Khalid told Agence France-Presse,
although he admitted the premier was “surprised” by the scale of
the setback.
“He has actually received quite a lot of
support from senior party leaders and he is still on track to be
sworn in tomorrow,” he added.
Abdullah is facing growing calls to quit after
the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition lost its two-thirds
majority in parliament for the first time since 1969 and conceded
four states to the resurgent opposition.
“The PM was surprised by the losses on
Saturday, but having said that, although the government has not
received a two-thirds majority, it was very close and the BN can
still form the government,” his spokesman insisted.
However Abdullah was savaged by former premier
Mahathir Mohamad, who handed power over to Abdullah in 2003 after
two decades leading the United National Malays Organization (UMNO)
which dominates the coalition.
“My view is he has destroyed UMNO, destroyed
the BN and he has been responsible for this,” Mahathir told
reporters.
He suggested Abdullah should resign, and
admitted he had made a mistake in selecting him as prime minister.
“I think he should accept responsibility for
this. He should accept 100-percent responsibility,” he said. “I
am sorry but I apparently made the wrong choice.”
-- AFP
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