At the next party elections, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is set to remain Umno president and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi would naturally be the party's deputy, according to supreme council member Nazri Aziz.

Nazri, the Padang Rengas division chief told The Star his division intends to table a motion in the upcoming Umno general assembly from Dec 5 to 9 to have the party's president and deputy president posts uncontested.

According to the daily today, the move is to ensure there is no distraction ahead of the coming 14th general election.

“This is the resolution that my division has put forward, and we want it to be debated and be passed at the Umno general assembly.

“This is to ensure that there won’t be any split in the party,” The Star reported him as saying in a recent interview.

He said contests for the top two posts would only distract the members and they would be unable to focus on the election.

The Star also reported him as saying Zahid was the “rightful heir” to the deputy presidency as he was the current deputy prime minister.

The Umno deputy post has been vacant since Muhyiddin Yassin was sacked following the 1MDB scandal, with Zahid assuming the duties following his departure.

Nazri argued the precedent was set by former premier Hussein Onn when the late Abdul Razak Hussein was prime minister.

“According to precedence, it follows that when it comes to party elections, he (Zahid) should be the deputy president and it should not be contested,” he told The Star.

A similar motion not to contest the top two posts was put up during the last party elections in October 2013, which saw Najib remaining as party president.

Ready to leave politics

Meanwhile, on his own political ambitions, Nazri said he had no plans to contest the vice-presidency.

He added he was ready to leave politics at any time, and would oblige if Najib asks him to leave.

“If he said it’s time for me to go, then honestly, I would gladly go. He is my friend and I’ve been supporting him for the past 40 years.

“So if I leave, it has to be that he (Najib) asked me to leave,” he told the English daily.

“To me, I’m just waiting to go and I really want to go.”