Federal Territories Umno Youth information chief Wan Agyl Wan Hassan said this makes the selection of the three vice-presidents in the upcoming Umno elections an important one.
“But of course, this depends on who will be the vice-presidents. If they are leaning towards the president, then their positions will become a complement to the status quo,” he told FMT.
He said the delegates’ vote would also indicate how they feel towards the incumbent vice-presidents who are defending their positions.
The current vice-presidents are former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, former education minister Mahdzir Khalid and Kota Tinggi MP Khaled Nordin, who is the current higher education minister.
Wan Agyl said it would not be easy for the incumbents to defend their posts this time around, especially since those who wanted to contest for the top two posts will now have no choice but to run for the three positions.
“The race will be very crowded. Not to mention, those who are not happy with the decision by the delegates (to bar the contest for the top two posts) will definitely want to dominate the vice-president posts instead,” he said, referring to the vote taken by delegates at the Umno general assembly on Jan 14.
However, Wan Agyl said it did not matter who would fill up the entire leadership and whether they would be aligned with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi because it will be more important for the new leadership to regain the voters’ confidence towards the party.
Last month, Zahid said Umno’s vice-president posts were open to being contested at the upcoming party elections.
However, he said the decision by the delegates to bar contests for the post of president and deputy president was final as the motion was adopted by the general assembly in accordance with the party’s constitution.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s Lee Kuok Tiung said that the race for the three vice-president’s posts will show that there are other capable candidates who could compete for the highest positions in the party while balancing the power of the existing top leadership.
However, he pointed out that the current incumbents would have an advantage as they were seen as Zahid’s “proxies”, adding that supporters of the president would certainly support candidates who had the latter’s blessing.
“Although there are anti-Zahid sentiments (within the party), the question is how to get them united and who will be able to be the hero to bring reforms in Umno,” he said.
Incumbents Khaled and Mahdzir were the first to declare their candidacy for the party’s vice-president’s posts.
Seven more candidates have since submitted their nomination papers for the vice-president’s contest.
They are Titiwangsa MP Johari Ghani, foreign minister Zambry Abdul Kadir, law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said, Pahang menteri besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, Supreme Council member Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, former housing and local government minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican, and former Johor menteri besar Hasni Mohammad.
Nominations for the Umno elections will close today. The elections for Wanita, Youth and Puteri leadership posts will be held on March 11, while division officials, vice-presidents and members of the Supreme Council will be elected on March 18.
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