Govt agrees in principle to allocations for opposition MPs, says Zahid

The federal government has agreed in principle to provide an allocation for opposition MPs, but only for their administrative expenses, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the matter was being finalised, with discussions being conducted by fellow Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof with the relevant quarters, and an announcement on it would be made by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

"At this stage, we agreed to provide the allocation to cover administrative expenses," he told reporters during his walkabout programme at Desa KEDA Sadek in Baling today.

Prior to this, Fadillah was reported to have said no conditions were set by Perikatan Nasional during initial discussions on financial allocations for opposition MPs.

Meanwhile, Zahid, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said BN and Pakatan Harapan were in the final stage of discussion on the seat allocation process for the state election in Kedah.

"We are finalising the distribution of the seats for the election in Kedah. For the other (five) states, the matter will be announced when I am there," he said.