New faces Mohd Isa Samad and Mohd Ali Rustam and incumbent Muhyiddin Yassin were today elected to fill the three Umno vice-president posts at the Umno 55th general assembly held in Kuala Lumpur's Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).

Federal Territories Minister Mohd Isa, 55 - who is former Negri Sembilan mentri besar - is the top vote-getter, followed by Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali, 55.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Muhyiddin, 57, a two-term VP, came in third.

The trio are among the seven candidates who had sought entry into the elite VPs club from which, by tradition, future top party leaders are picked.

Another incumbent VP, Muhammad Muhd Taib, failed to make the grade. It is believed that he came in fourth, about 60 votes behind Muhyiddin. Muhd Taib, who does not hold any government posts, had been VP for three terms since 1993.

The other candidates in the race were Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mustapa Mohamed, Johor Baru member of parliament Shahrir Samad and Pahang Mentri Besar Adnan Yaakob.

The results was announced by Umno's permanent deputy chairperson Onn Ismail, who told a capacity crowd in PWTC that he himself had also won the contest for the party's permanent chairperson.

The post of the deputy permanent chairperson went to Badruddin Amruidin.

Onn, however, did not spell out the number of votes obtained by the candidates. This is expected to be announced tomorrow when the general assembly resumes its meeting.

Supreme council new line-up

Onn went on to announce the new supreme council line-up, beginning with the highest vote-getter:

  1. Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo (Selangor mentri besar)

  • Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (deputy tourism minister)

  • Musa Aman (Sabah mentri besar)

  • Mohd Zin Mohamed (deputy works minister, former Backbenchers Club)

  • Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis (science, technology and innovations minister)

  • Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (women, family and community development minister, deputy wanita chief)

  • Noh Omar (deputy internal security minister)

  • Annuar Musa (former rural development minister)

  • Tengku Putera Tengku Awang (deputy finance minister)

  • Syed Hamid Albar (foreign minister)

  • Mohamed Khaled Nordin (entrepreneurial and cooperative development minister)

  • Mohd Shafie Apdal (domestic trade and consumer affairs minister)

  • Shahidan Kassim (Perlis mentri besar)

  • Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik (former Malacca chief minister)

  • Mohamad Hasan (Negri Sembilan mentri besar)

  • Syed Razak Syed Zain (Kedah mentri besar)

  • Abdul Ghani Othman (Johor mentri besar)

  • Dr Awang Adek Hussin (deputy rural and regional development minister)

  • Azalina Othman Said (youth and sports minister)

  • Dr Norraesah Mohamad (Bank Rakyat chairperson)

  • Abdul Aziz Shamsudin (rural and regional development minister)

  • Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (former minister in the prime minister's department, Putrajaya MP)

  • Abdul Rahman Bakar (deputy human resources minister)

  • Dr Abd Latiff Ahmad (deputy health minister)

  • Dr Hilmi Yahya (finance ministry parliamentary secretary, ex-Penang deputy chief minister)

    • Abdul Rahim's stunning comeback

    The biggest comeback must belong to Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik who returned to mainstream politics after seven years in the doldrums following a sex scandal involving an underaged woman, which resulted in him giving up all party and government posts.

    His attempt to win back his position as Kota Melaka division chief last July was unsuccessful.

    Abdul Rahim later claimed that money politics was rampant in Umno, and accused his opponent Amid Nordin of being a party to it at the divisional polls. He was proven right when Amid was suspended last week from the party for three years.

    Apart from Abdul Rahim, there was a total of 12 new faces in the new line-up. These mostly include first-time members of parliament and mentris besar.

    The new council has seven ministers, seven deputy ministers, six mentris besar, and two former ministers. The remaining three are a former chief minister (Abdul Rahim), a businesswoman (Dr Norraesah Mohamad) and a parliamentary secretary (Dr Hilmi Yahya).

    Only six incumbents were retained while a total of seven appointed incumbents made it through the polls this time.

    Women candidates were also elected into the council for the first time - not one but three of them.

    Previously, both Azalina Othman Said and Dr Norraesah Mohamad were appointed to the council, but they are now elected members. Norraesah is also the only full-time corporate figure to sit in the council.

    As for Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, her victory today was a sweet revenge for failing to make the cut in 2000. She scored the highest votes among the three women contestants.

    Among the biggest losers are Information Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir - who bagged the fourth highest nominations out of 51 candidates - Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh and Home Minister Azmi Khalid. All three were incumbents.

    Nevertheless, the party president can appoint 10 others, which may include some who failed to make it in the polls, to the council.

    Results delayed

    Earlier today, more than 2,500 delegates voted to elect the three vice-presidents as well as 25 others for the all-powerful supreme council.

    Voting ended at about 4.40pm and the counting of ballots began soon after.

    However, there was some confusion when the first day of the general assembly was adjourned without the expected announcement of the party elections results.

    Onn, who adjourned the meeting at 6.30pm to tomorrow morning, gave no indications as to when the results would be announced.

    The delegates were however reminded to attend a dinner hosted by party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at 8pm at the Putra World Trade Centre, the same venue where the three-day meeting is taking place.

    It wasn't until 10.30pm that Onn went into the main conference room to make the official announcement.

    Umno polls score chart