Khairy Jamaluddin's political secretary, Megat Firdouz Megat Junid, has denied that his boss' last-minute entry into the race for Umno president was aimed at splitting the votes of those aligned against acting president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Megat Firdouz said this when asked to respond to allegations within Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's circles that Khairy's surprise entry was aimed at helping Zahid.

"No, this is not a political manoeuvring or (a case of) splitting or spoiling votes. It is for the interest of the party," he told journalists at the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

The Umno election is expected to be a four-horse race between Zahid, Tengku Razaleigh and Khairy, as well as little-known blogger Rahmat Azim Abdul Aziz.

Those aligned against Zahid are fuming at Khairy for not stepping up earlier, for it was the absence of a leader they could rally behind at the time that prompted them to convince Tengku Razaleigh to contest.

Megat Firdouz said he withdrew Khairy's nomination papers for the post of Umno vice-president and refiled for the presidency at around 3pm, some two hours before the nomination process ended.

This comes a day after Tengku Razaleigh announced that he would be challenging Zahid.

'No teams'

Asked if Khairy, the Rembau MP, would be allying himself with any other contenders in the Umno election – such as Negeri Sembilan Umno chief Mohamad Hassan, who is gunning for deputy – he stressed that there would be "no teams."

"No team. We are all the Umno team. This is a contest in the big Umno family. There will be no teams as we contest in the spirit of the Umno family," he said.

Mohamad was present at Tengku Razaleigh's residence when the Umno veteran announced his presidency yesterday.

Also present was Titiwangsa Umno chief Johari Abdul Ghani, himself eyeing one of the three vice-president spots.

Khairy, in a statement today, said he was until recently fixed on running for vice-president.

However, he decided to contest for the Umno president position at the 11th hour to provide delegates with a choice that "represented the generational transition" in Umno.