Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor today admitted that the postponement of the Umno election was due to a "political crisis" but insisted that it was not related to 1MDB.

Tengku Adnan, when met by reporters today, was asked whether the postponement was due to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak needing more time to resolve the 1MDB crisis.

"No, no. It has nothing to do with any problems.

"The party elections were postponed due to the current political crisis happening in the country," he said.

Although Tengku Adnan did not elaborate on what exactly the current political crisis is, it is understood that former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's ( photo ) relentless attacks against Najib had triggered the crisis currently faced by the party.

Najib's leadership is on the rocks, and it is safe to say that the party is split between his supporters and Mahathir's.

Several analysts believe that the postponement of the party elections was due to Najib needing to buy time.

To make Umno and BN stronger

The Umno supreme council yesterday postponed the party's internal election, initially slated for next year, for 18 months.

Najib ( photo ), in announcing this, said apart from strengthening the party, the move would ensure that Umno and other BN component parties were stronger come the next general elections.

Meanwhile, Tengku Adnan also denied that the move to postpone the party elections was mooted by the party's supreme council.

"It was not the supreme council's idea to postpone it. We had asked the grassroots on the matter.

"During a workshop I held on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Umno members, all 221 divisions who were in attendance voiced out asking for the postponement due to the current political crisis in the party and in facing the opposition.

"Since we will be facing the general elections, we should focus on that instead of conducting party elections because if we conduct party elections, other problems will rise," he said.

All should abide by ROS' decision

On a separate matter, when asked on the status of G Palanivel as president of MIC, Tengku Adnan said that all should abide by the Registrar of Societies' (ROS) decision on the matter.

"We have to abide by it as the country has laws.

"If the MIC constitution said you cannot bring the party matters to court and you do it, then you gugur (will be dropped), because that is the decision of your constitution," he said.

Palanivel's ( photo ) membership was revoked after he mounted a legal challenge against an ROS directive ordering fresh Central Working Committee (CWC) elections.

This were due to complaints from members on alleged irregularities in the 2013 party polls.

MIC's constitution states that any member who takes party matters to court will automatically lose their party membership.

As a result, Palanivel's deputy, Dr S Subramaniam is now the party's acting president.