Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi has suggested that the positions of Umno president and deputy president not be contested in the party election slated for the end of this year.

NONE This is because cooperation between the president Najib Abdul Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin is congenial and has not bring any problem to the party and the nation, Berita Harian today quotes Puad as saying

The former deputy education minister, who lost his Batu Pahat parliamentary seat to PKR in last month's general election, said the Najib-Muhyiddin leadership has made Umno a stronger party and managed to focus on the nation's transformation agenda.

"Umno managed to increase its parliamentary seats from 79 to 88 in the 13th general election. Although the Malay votes had split into three - Umno, PKR and PAS - the majority of the voters still support Umno," Puad is quoted as saying.

He said the Najib-Muhyiddin leadership must be maintained to ensure Umno remained relevant in the future and capable of implementing tactical strategy to win the hearts of the people.

He therefore hoped that no other party leader would contest the two posts.

'Nobody else has the potential'

"I don't see anybody with the potential to be on their chairs," he added.

Umno has overhauled its party electoral system, which among other changes has removed the minimum number of nominations a candidate must have to run for the presidency. This effectively opens the post for contest by virtually any Umno member.

The new electoral system will be put to its first use in the coming party election.

A total of 146,500 delegates from 161 divisions nationwide will elect the party leadership in line with amendments to the Umno constitution in 2009.

Only 2,510 delegates were eligible to vote for the national leadership, from president to supreme council members, at the last Umno general assembly in that year.

Najib last Friday implied that he is ready to face any challenge to his position, saying that Umno is a democratic party.

NONE "Well, Umno is a democratic party, so I do not know. We have to accept that Umno is an open party, not like some other parties," Najib told a press conference after chairing an Umno supreme council meeting.

In Seremban this evening, Bernama reported Negeri Sembilan Umno passing a no contest resolution for the posts of president and deputy president at its national elections.

State Umno chairperson Mohamad Hasan ( right ) said the resolution was necessary to strengthen Umno in preparation for the 14th general election (GE-14).

"It is better that the two posts are not contested to avoid a split in Umno.  We want Najib as president and Muhyiddin as deputy president as we need a strong team to face GE14," Mohamad told reporters after chairing the Negeri Sembilan Umno and BN meeting.