No one challenging Umno’s vice-president incumbents so far, says Shahrir Samad

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — With less than a week left before the Umno party elections, no member has come forward to contest or challenge for the party’s vice-president post as of yesterday.

Umno election committee chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad was quoted saying no new members or leaders had registered for the party’s number three post besides the incumbents.

"Umno’s vice-president posts are currently held by incumbents Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

"As of Sunday, 111 candidates have registered to contests in various posts at the party’s supreme council, Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings.

"For the Umno Wanita chief post there is already one candidate, with one for the Youth chief post, while Puteri has six candidates vying for the wing’s top post,” Shahrir reportedly said in a Sinar Harian report.

However, he said he received 24 nominations for the position of the party’s supreme council posts, ahead of the last day of nominations this Sunday.

Registration for positions in Umno’s supreme council, Wanita, Youth and Puteri executive committees as part of the party’s internal polls is open starting February 12 to 26 at the Auditorium in Menara Dato' Onn here.

The selection for Umno divisional posts in the committee, Wanita, Youth and Puteri, registration is open at the party’s respective division offices or the state liaison offices.

Continuing on the Umno election updates, Shahrir said that there was one candidate confirmed for the party’s Wanita vice chief post, two candidates vying for the Youth vice chief post and three candidates for the Puteri vice chief post.

He added that the respective party wing’s executive committee had a total of 22 candidates for the Wanita, 25 (Youth) and 15 (Puteri) who had already registered.

The Malay daily reported Shahrir expected the number of candidates to increase by the final week, including for the Umno vice president’s post.

Umno is currently holding its internal party elections for all 191 divisions and 22,000 branches nationwide.

The party’s new office bearers will be elected from February 1 to March 18. However, the positions of president and deputy president will not be contested this time around.

In May last year, Umno amended its constitution to allow its party polls to be held within six months after the conclusion of the 15th general election (GE15).

The biggest Malay-based party had earlier postponed its party elections for 18 months after the 2018/2021 term ended on June 30, 2021.

Umno’s election for the 2021/2023 term was originally supposed to be held before December 30 last year prior to the postponement.