The wave of support for Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for the post of Umno president continued unabated on Saturday with 35 more nominations streaming in his favour, bringing the total to 101.

The only blemish to this figure is the sole nomination won by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, unsurprisingly from his division Gua Musang in Kelantan.

Forty one divisions had their meetings yesterday but only the results of 36 divisions are known at press time. Another 65 divisions will be holding their meetings today. There is a total 191 divisions nationwide. The final date for the meetings is July 22.

A candidate for the top post needs at least 58 nominations to contest and Tengku Razaleigh, known popularly as Ku Li, mathematically still stands a chance of garnering the needed nominations.

However with the current trend of all divisions favouring the acting president Abdullah, it seems Ku Li's challenge faces the risk of dying out. Abdullah, who is also the prime minister, took over the party in the acting capacity following the retirement of Dr Mahathir Mohamad last October.

Old system

Perhaps it was this situation which prompted Ku Li to speak out today against the nomination system.

"We should go back to the old system...we only need one proposer and one seconder and we are eigible," he was quoted as saying in the New Sunday Times today.

"Why all this campaign to get 58 nominations before you can qualify. It is so restrictive.

"And certainly those who are not in the position of influence or authority will (not) achieve," added Ku Li who is an appointed Umno supreme council member.

The nominations requirement was established to prevent unnecessary contest to the top posts following the bitter fight between Ku Li and Mahathir in 1987 party polls. On that occasion Mahathir won by 43 votes with far reaching consequences to the party.

Umno was ruled illegal by the High Court, prompting Mahathir to set up Umno Baru and Ku Li setting up his splinter party Semangat 46.

Unopposed winners

For the post of deputy president, Najib Abdul Razak continues to bag in nominations without any challengers in sight. Thus far he had obtained 102 nominations.

Similarly Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein is also racing away unchallenged with all 183 divisions that had met so far nominating him.

Challenges for two other party posts - the deputy chief for the Youth wing and the Umno Wanita chief - also fizzled away with challengers running out of divisions to nominate them.

Khairy Jamaluddin is now certain to become the new Umno Youth deputy chief after receiving a total of 174 nominations. His nearest challenger is Mukhriz Mahathir with six nominations - 23 short of the qualifying benchmark.

With only 11 more divisions yet to meet, Mukhriz is definitely out of the race.

As for the Wanita chief post, incumbent Rafidah Aziz has garnered 179 nominations with only five more divisions to meet. As such, her challenger Siti Zaharah Sulaiman, with seven nominations, stands no chance of obtaining the required 39 nominations to qualify.

As for the deputy post for the Wanita wing, incumbent Shahrizat Jalil is returned unopposed after bagging all 186 nominations.

For the posts of vice presidents, incumbent Muhyiddin Yassin is still leading the race with 89 nominations, followed by Mohd Ali Rustam (59), Muhammad Muhd Taib (55), Mustapa Mohamed (35), Mohd Isa Samad (21) and Adnan Yaakob (15). The qualifying benchmark for this post is 20 nominations.

Party elections will be held during the party's annual general assembly in September.