Sun,9-Former Selangor Menteri Besar Muhammad Muhd Taib today gained the required nominations to vie for the Umno deputy president post.
He will be challenging two present vice-presidents Muhyiddin Yassin and Mohd Ali Rustam.
Muhd Taib became the last person to check in with the required 39 nominations after getting the nod from the Kelana Jaya and Hulu Terengganu divisions today.
Mohd Ali gained his minimum nominations yesterday.
The frontrunner for the deputy post remains Muhyiddin who had already amassed 88 nominations. He qualified for the contest by acquiring the required nominations on Oct 19.
The division level meetings end today, except for some divisions whose meetings have been ordered by the party to be reconvened.
As it stands, the present deputy, Najib Abdul Razak is set to become the next party president after having won nominations from almost all 191 Umno divisions.
His own division, Pekan, naturally nominated him for the top post yesterday. He was also returned unopposed as the division chief.
Only Gua Musang had nominated someone else for the top post - that of its division head Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. However his challenge will not tale place as he had failed to obtain the required minimum 58 nominations from the top post.
Present president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had decided to step down in March allowing for a smooth takeover by Najib.
The question is as to who will become Najib's deputy from the trio of Muhyiddin, Muhd Taib and Mohd Ali. The contest next March is the first for the deputy president's post in 21 years.
By convention, the Umno president becomes the prime minister while the deputy president is slated to be the deputy premier.
As for Abdullah, although he is not contesting for the top post, he was nevertheless retained as the Kepala Batas division head today.
Vice presidents' race
Apart from the race for the deputy president, the heat is also on for the three slots for the vice-president's posts.
Today - the final day of meetings for the divisions, two other candidates qualified to make it an eight-cornered fight.
The last two to check in were Jamaluddin Jarjis and Rais Yatim who both gained the required minimum 21 nominations today.
Leading the race is the outgoing Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein who has already gotten at least 135 nominations.
He is followed by former Youth chief Ahmad Zahid Hamidi with at least 94 nominations.
Shafie Apdal has 69 nominations and looks set to give a tough fight based on his support from his home base Sabah.
Others in the contest are Khaled Nordin, Syed Hamid Albar and disgraced former vice-president Isa Samad.
There could still be time for one more contestant on the form of former Malacca chief minister Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik. He needs six more nominations to fulfil the required minimum 20 nominations to contest for this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment