Abdul Jalil Abdul Hamid has been elected the new president of the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), Director-General of Trade Union (DGTU) Mohd Zubir Mohd Basri announced today.

Jalil ( pix ), from the Bumiputra-Commerce Bank, Penang, secured 4,886 votes while his sole challenger Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin from EON Bank, Seremban, garnered only 2,218 votes. It was a landslide victory.

The winners of the long-awaited NUBE election results were announced at the Ministry of Human Resources this morning witnessed by its minister Dr Fong Chan Onn.

Abdul Zaman Abdullah from BIMB Kuala Lumpur was elected deputy president while J Solomon was elected as general-secretary.

Chen Ka Fatt, Oui Ban Hong, Mohamed Dauzkaply Nor Ghazali and Rosida Abd Mutalib were elected vice-presidents. G Umapathy took over as assistant general-secretary while Tan Eng Hong won the treasurer's post.

The new office-bearers will helm NUBE till 2008.

Fong told reporters at the function that the election of the new line-up today marked the end of the NUBE leadership crisis which started in October 2001.

He urged union members to give the new leaders a chance to work for them and NUBE, saying that the just-concluded election was a democratic one.

"I'm confident that under the new leadership, NUBE will make changes for the benefit of all bank employees in the country," he added.

"This is a decision made by members. At the National Executive Council (NEC) level, there are representatives from both groups, and they should give their views to resolve matters. The important thing is to see unity in the union," Fong said.

Recognise new line-up

The minister also appealed to the Malaysia Commercial Banks Association to accept the new line-up as duly elected NUBE officials and to pave the way to resolve problems such as the no-salary increment of bank employees for the past four years.

Jalil said at the simple ceremony that his immediate plan of action is to look into the collective agreement its 23,000 members had inked with their employers.

"From today, there is no faction. There is only one NUBE," he said this to applause from the floor.