KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — Umno today denied issuing a letter backing Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the next prime minister candidate.

Its executive secretary Datuk Mohd Sumali Reduan claimed the letter that had been shared widely on social media to be the work of "certain quarters with vested interest and ill intentions to smear the image of the Umno president”.

"Here I would like to emphasise that the Umno president’s office has never issued this letter,” he said in a statement posted on Umno Online, the party website.

He added that official letters all carry their party letterheads and a reference number.

The widely circulated letter addressed to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong mentioned Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamid together with all Umno MPs as supporting PKR president Anwar replacing Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister.