He is a member and Division Chief of Kemaman of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Ahmad Said is a political science graduate from Universiti Sains Malaysia and was firstly elected as an assemblyman in 1990, at the young age of only 33 years old, succeeding Mohamad Md Amin, who died during the campaigning period.
[2] In what political analysts described as a possible constitutional crisis, trouble began to precipitate after the Sultan of Terengganu, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, who was also the then-Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia, refused to re-appoint and swear in Idris as Menteri Besar.
[7] In spite of threats to strip Ahmad Said of his UMNO membership "for disobeying the leadership", he went to the office in Wisma Darul Iman to begin the first day of his new appointment on 25 March 2008.
[9] On 26 March 2008, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin met at Istana Negara to resolve the impasse.
The apparent backdown was due to a threat that the royal household would be prepared to dissolve the state assembly if the motion of no-confidence was initiated against Ahmad Said, which would trigger another election in what was already a climate of discontent towards the ruling party and the possibility of dissenting assemblymen defecting to the opposition.
With the resolution of the impasse, Ahmad Said expressed his gratitude over his appointment and paid tribute to Idris an old friend he has known since their university days, for the contributions that he has done for the Terengganu people so far and to seek his advice.