Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

©The Malaysian Insider (Used by permission)

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — More voices of dissent from Umno branches were heard during the weekend.

A few of them didn't nominate Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak to retain their respective top two positions.

Besides veteran politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and deputy president Najib, who have already been nominated for the presidency, a branch in Johor has nominated vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for the top post.

The Desa Jaya Umno branch under the Johor Bahru division decided it was time again for a Johorean to try his luck at the party polls in December.

The previous two party presidents from the state were Dato Onn Jaafar and his son, the late former Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn.

In Umno polls, branch nominations do not count but serve as an important barometer of support.

The Johor Bahru division chief is Datuk Shahrir Samad, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister who is also the MP for the constituency.

Twelve of the 14 branches in Muar, Johor nominated Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah for the party president’s post. The other two branches decided to keep mum.

The Muar Umno division chief is Datuk Mohd Ismail Mohd Shah, the former Maharani state assemblyman who lost to Pas in the March 8 general election. The MP for Muar is Datuk Razali Ibrahim, the division Youth chief as well as a close friend of Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

Tengku Razaleigh, who was also nominated for the president’s post by all the 32 branches in his Gua Musang division in Kelantan, had also received four nominations from outside his state — two from Kedah and one each from Selangor and Johor — last week.

Some of the branch leaders know their nominations may not mean a thing and expect the respective division might throw away their effort into the political dustbin.

Yet some are hopeful that members elected to represent the branch at the divisional meetings later in October will carry out the grassroots' aspirations.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed