Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah failed to obtain enough nominations to contest as Umno president because he refused to bribe delegates in return for their votes, said an aide today.

According to Kamal Amir Kamal Hijaz, representatives from more than 50 Umno divisions had approached him for money prior to the division meetings.

tengku razaleigh umno roadshow 160608 07 "Some asked for RM500 while others wanted RM1,500 per head. (But) I told them that we didn't have money. Tengku (Razaleigh) does not want to give money for nominations.

"Tengku only offered himself to be evaluated and chosen by the delegates and will not give money in order to obtain nominations," he told Malaysiakini .

Incumbent deputy president Najib Abdul Razak has so far obtained 141 nominations for the top post from the 142 divisions that had held their respective annual general meetings.

Tengku Razaleigh is Najib's sole contender and has only one nomination - from his home base of Gua Musang when the division met on Saturday.

In view of this, Najib has won the post uncontested because Tengku Razaleigh can no longer secure the necessary 59 nominations since only 50 Umno divisions have yet to meet.

Voting method

According to Kamal Amir, the voting method at each division had also hampered Tengku Razaleigh’s bid to receive nominations.

He said instead of having a secret ballot, many divisions had resorted to a show of hands.

"These divisions include those in Kelantan. Only the Muar division held a secret ballot.

"If the voting were held in the form of secret ballots, I'm confident the nominations for Tengku (Razaleigh) would be different," he said.

Kamal Amir claimed that Tengku Razaleigh was a nominee in 67 division meetings thus far.

He also lamented that many of the meetings did not thoroughly discuss motions that were tabled.

Instead, he claimed that most of the delegates left the meetings right after the voting process.