Umno election Oct 5
(Bernama) – Umno will hold its Supreme Council elections on Oct 5, simultaneously with the divisional delegates meetings nationwide, party president Najib Tun Razak announced yesterday.
He also said that the party’s 2013 general assembly would be held over six
days from Dec 2.
The national-level elections for the Wanita Umno, Umno Youth and Puteri Umno wings would be held on Sept 28, he said after chairing a meeting of the Umno Supreme Council, here.
Najib, who is the prime minister, said party members who wanted to contest posts in the supreme council, divisions and wings could register as candidates on Sept 7 with the state Umno liaison committees.
This is the first time that Umno will be enforcing amended provisions of the party constitution that enables about 150,000 grassroots members to elect the top leadership, and not restricting the elections to about 2,600 assembly delegates as was the practice up to now.
Najib said he hoped that the amended provisions of the party constitution would enable members to elect leaders who could place the party on a stronger foundation.
“We hope that the elected leaders are acceptable to the party and the people … we want leaders who are successful not only in the party but also in the general election as well.
“We hope that Umno can be accepted as the party of choice of the people. It is for this reason that we have to field leaders acceptable to the people and able to reflect a positive image,” he said.
Najib also announced that the total number of Umno members as of now was about 3.4 million.
The number included new members totalling 113,959 as of July 22, making up ordinary members (9,043), Wanita Umno members (17,841), Umno Youth members (48,867) and Puteri Umno members (38,208), he said.
Six new state chiefs
Following the meeting, Najib also announced the appointment of six new state chiefs for the party.
They are Shahidan Kassim (Perlis), Mukhriz Tun Dr Mahathir (Kedah), Noh Omar (Selangor), Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (Federal Territories), Idris Haron (Melaka) and Mohd Khaled Nordin (Johor).
State chiefs who were retained are Mustapa Mohamed (Kelantan), Ahmad Said (Terengganu), Zainal Abidin Osman (Penang) and Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir (Perak), Adnan Yaakob (Pahang), Mohamad Hasan (Negeri Sembilan)
and Musa Aman (Sabah).
Najib also announced the the deputy state chiefs as follows:
- Perlis – Azlan Man
- Kedah – Datuk Paduka Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah
- Kelantan – Datuk Awang Adek Hussin
- Terengganu – Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh
- Penang – Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya
- Perak – Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah
- Pahang – Datuk Mohd Shakar Shamsudin
- Selangor – Abdul Shukor Idrus
- Federal Territories – Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin
- Negeri Sembilan – Datuk Shaziman Mansor
- Melaka – Datuk Wira Ahmad Hamzah
- Johor – Datuk Seri Dr Latif Ahmad
- Sabah – Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak
Najib said Umno’s Supreme Council also agreed that the management of the Sungai Petani and Padang Serai divisions in Kedah be returned to the respective divisions.
This followed the Kedah Umno Liaison Committee requesting that Sungai Petani division head Ali Yahya and Padang Serai acting division head Halim Hassan be entrusted the responsibility.
The Sungai Petani division became embroiled in problems since 2010 while Padang Serai beginning early last year, which forced their management to be taken over by the state party headquarters.
