The council had also decided to move the party's general assembly forward from its traditional June meeting. It will now be held on May 10-13, with elections on the11th.

Speculation had been rife before the council meeting that Umno would opt for a no-contest ruling for its top two posts to avoid a debilitating power struggle within the party.

"I think it is a good move because we cannot afford to have more infighting within the party. We need party unity," Umno Wanita's permanent chairperson Aishah Ghani told malaysiakini .

The decision will help cement Abdullah's position as the heir apparent and Mahathir's successor.

However, some political observers believe the move would deter new blood from being injected into the party following the erosion of the party's credibility in the eye of the Malays after Umno's dismal showing in the recent general elections.

"Judging from the election results, the nation knows that Umno's influence has eroded. It is time to change the leadership," says political analyst Dr Hussain Mohamed from Universiti Malaya, who added that the chances for new faces in the party is now almost impossible.

According to Hussain, the no-contest decision would also seal the fate of a number of Umno stalwarts. He said that this was a clear signal to former S46 leader Razaleigh Hamzah that he had no future within the party, while vice-president Najib Tun Razak would be hard pressed to retain his present party position in the coming elections.

In the last Umno elections in 1996, there were no contest for the two top posts following a special resolution adopted at the Umno general assembly the previous year. The decision had since unleashed a fear that there could be abuse of power and concentration of authority in the hands of a few Umno leaders.

The current stand taken by council members had also drawn criticisms from opposition leaders.

"It is unconstitutional for the council members to impose such a decision on the delegates. The right to nominate for the posts of president and deputy president is a constitutional right of the delegates," KeADILan deputy president Chandra Muzaffar said.

However, according to Aishah, the Supreme Council has the "supreme and absolute power to decide on almost on everything".

PRM President Dr Syed Husin Ali believed that the no-contest ruling could work against Mahathir in the long run.

"This could trigger hatred and anger among party members because Mahathir would not allow anyone to challenge him," he said.

The focus now in the coming Umno elections would be on the fight for the three vice-president posts where a host of Umno veterans and other hopefuls are battling to move up the party hierarchy.

Among those who have expressed their willingness to contest include former S46 deputy leader Rais Yatim, Perlis Mentri Besar Shahidan Kassim and Foreign Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar.

The vice-president posts are expected to be hotly contested because successful candidates would be in a better position to bid for the deputy presidency as Mahathir has announced that this would be his last term in office.