Umno Kelana Jaya division chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib is free to run his division as he sees fit, party president Najib Abdul said today.

He said Muhammad decision to delegate his responsibilities to his deputy was his prerogative as division chief.

umno supreme council special meeting 260809 muhammad mohd taib "He has delegated (his powers), so it's alright. We accept (his decision). The acting chief has the power to keep the division running," Najib told a press conference after chairing an Umno supreme council meeting this evening in Kuala Lumpur.

Muhammad Taib's ( right ) division members were reported to have been livid over his year-long absence.

His deputy, Yahaya Bujang, however refuted this, saying the members were aware that Muhammad Taib had ‘entrusted’ him with branch-running responsibilities since April last year.

Najib also announced that the Rantau Panjang and Sungai Petani divisions will be taken over by their respective state liaison committees until further notice.

The Rantau Panjang division will be run by the Umno Kelantan liaison committee until the party's disciplinary board decides on appropriate action to be taken against three division leaders.

Internal squabbling

Former division chief Mohd Zain Ismail and former treasurer Ghazali Ismail have been cited for infighting, while its Puteri chief Nor Hayati Mamat was referred to the board for officiating an unsanctioned divisional meeting.

This being a meeting chaired by Mohd Zain and held ahead of the official division meeting chaired by current Rantau Panjang division chief Abdullah Mat Yassin.

umno 2009 The Sungai Petani division will be run by the Kedah liaison committee until it settles its own internal squabbling.

It is understood that infighting in the division came to a head when several committee members stopped division chief Ali Yahaya from making a speech at a recent meeting.

Najib, however, did not indicate if any disciplinary action would be taken against any member in the division.

The prime minister played down the infighting as ‘nothing unusual’, noting the state liaison committees would only administer the divisions until the situation settles down.

"There is nothing extraordinary about this (situation), it is not worrying...throughout Umno's history, this has happened many times," he said.

BN numbers increasing

Najib also swatted aside claims that Umno was unable to attract najib and barisan nasional new members because the people were sick and fed-up with the party.

"That is not right. How can you say people are sick of Umno...I cannot accept that (statement).

"Umno is the largest component party in BN. After cleaning up the membership rolls, we have 3,186,850 members minus those who have died or who are untraceable.

"And our numbers are increasing," he claimed.