D-Day for Shahrizat and Khairy as Umno decides

Some 230,000 Umno delegates from the Youth, Women and Puteri wings will decide their new central and divisional leadership at the party polls today.

Delegates began registering themselves at their respective divisions beginning 8am today and will first deal with the usual order of business in a regular general assembly.

After that, the delegates, many of likely first-time voters under the newly expanded party electoral system, will receive a briefing on how to vote before ballot papers are issued.

Some 110,000 delegates will decide the Umno Wanita leadership while the Umno Youth and Umno Puteri will see some 70,000 and 50,000 delegates respectively casting their ballots.

Each delegate is given two sets of ballot papers to elect their leaders at the divisional and national levels.

Voting for the Umno supreme council, including the hotly contested vice-presidencies, will only take place on Oct 19.

Even though today's vote does not include the topmost Umno leadership, it will be a litmus test for the country's largest and most powerful party, and today's results may also be an indication of next week's supreme council vote.

The Umno Youth battle will be a gauge between progressive and conservative ideas as incumbent chief Khairy Jamaluddin has steadfastly defended his self-professed liberal approach while his opponents are campaigning on a platform of returning the wing to its Malay nationalistic roots.

The Youth wing  decision today will also determine how far former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's influence still overshadows the party, as one of the challengers Akhramsyah Muammar Ubaidah Sanusi is seen as the face of conservative forces aligned to the prime minister and party chief of 22 years.

The other three contenders are Syed Rosli Syed Harman Jamallulail, Abd Karim Ali and Irwan Ambak Khalid Izhar.

Wanita contemplates NFC baggage

On the Umno Wanita front, it remains to be seen if delegates will endorse incumbent chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil whose family is embroiled in the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal for which her husband is facing a criminal breach of trust charge.

Her challengers are Maznah Mazlan and Raihan Suleiman.

The Puteri Umno fight is less heated, as its incumbent chief Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin is vacating the seat due to age constraints and two new faces, Mas Ermieyati Samsudin and Jamilah Hanim Othman will go head to head for the top post.

The voting process ended at about 1pm, and the delegates will

resume meeting while the votes are counted.

Whoever wins at the respective divisons will get one vote and this will be tallied later today for the final results. There are 191 Umno divisions nationwide.

Ninety-four candidates are contesting at the national level in Umno Youth while 7,125 are vying for posts at the divisional level.

Wanita has 51 candidates vying for posts at the national level and 6,758 at the divisional level while Puteri has 35 candidates at national level and 4,955 at the divisional level.

The results of the elections in the wings are expected to be known as early as 7pm tonight, said Umno Election Committee deputy chief Azmi Khalid.