KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Umno has officially decided to postpone its internal election until 2023 and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will remain the party president until that time, said supreme council member Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman.
According to Malay daily Sinar Harian, Tajuddin said all except two Umno supreme council members agreed to postpone the party election through a “circular resolution”.
“The postponement of the election was approved when the majority of MKT (Umno supreme council) members signed the ‘circular resolution’ made online.
“Only two MKT members did not sign it,” he was quoted as saying by Sinar Harian.
The Malay daily reported that Tajuddin, who is also the party’s election chief, said the decision was in line with the Umno constitution, which allows the election to be postponed for a maximum of 18 months after the end of the current leadership term.
He also said the decision had to be made before the current leadership term ended on June 30.
Tajuddin said that as Umno was currently focused on helping those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the party decided to set aside political issues temporarily in order to carry out its responsibility to help the people.
“I also always remind my friends in MKT and division heads to always put the people first in whatever action they take.
“Like myself, even though I am the Umno election director, the focus is to help the people while handling preparatory work for the 15th General Election (GE15),” he was quoted as saying.
However, Tajuddin said that while the postponement was for 18 months, the election could be held sooner if the situation evolved.
Ahmad Zahid was elected Umno president in June 2018 for a period of three years until June 2021.
He obtained 93 divisional votes defeating four other candidates including Umno veteran Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.
