Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) application to join the BN coalition as a component party has not been accepted.

Instead, the party will be recognised as an "ahli gabungan" (associate member).

According to BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor's letter to the party, BN's supreme council had made this decision on April 22.

"The supreme council resolved that PCM's application to be a BN component party could not be fulfilled at this time.

"However, the meeting resolved that PCM will be accepted as a BN associate member," read the letter.

When contacted, PCM founder and leader Huan Cheng Guan (photo below) said his party had applied to join BN because the two-coalition system made it difficult for political parties to stay independent.

"There is Pakatan Harapan and BN. I have more friends in BN," said Huan, who founded PCM in 2009, after being sacked by Gerakan. 

Huan was formerly an elected vice-president of Gerakan, a party that left BN last June.

On what PCM will bring to the BN table, Huan said the coalition will benefit from his party's multi-racial outlook and the fact that it has members throughout the country, even in East Malaysia.

At its peak in 2008, BN had 14 component parties. Now it is down to its founding members - Umno, MCA and MIC.