Umno women and youth wings eyeing Mahkota seat

UMNO AGM | Wanita Umno and Umno Youth have shown interest in fielding a candidate from their respective party for the upcoming Mahkota by-election.

Wanita Umno chief Noraini Ahmad asked for her wing to be given a shot to uphold the legacy of the late incumbent Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain.

“We must insist that the Mahkota state seat be given to a female candidate.

“We must uphold Sharifah’s legacy,” said Noraini in her winding-up speech at the Wanita Umno General Assembly 2024 at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur today.

She said female candidates have shown strong performance in previous elections.

"For example, the female candidate in Pulai Sebatang won, even though she had lost previously,” she added, referring to BN’s Hasrunizah Hassan, who won the seat in 2022 against three other candidates.

Kluang Umno Youth chief as candidate

As for Umno Youth, a motion to field Kluang Umno Youth chief Syed Hussein Syed Abdullah as the BN candidate has been put forward.

Its chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh told Umno supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan to bring the matter to the supreme working council meeting tonight to solidify their stance.

"We have one more motion from Umno Youth. We would like to nominate Kluang Umno Youth chief as the candidate for the Mahkota by-election,” he said, to the thunderous applause of the youth delegates who chanted “Hussein, Hussein” in support of their leader’s motion.

Akmal said this in his winding-up speech at the Umno Youth General Assembly 2024 at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur today.

The Election Commission set Sept 28 as the polling day for the Mahkota by-election, with nomination day and early voting scheduled for Sept 14 and 24, respectively.

The election was called following Sharifah’s death on Aug 2 at Enche’ Besar Hajjah Khalsom Hospital in Kluang.

In the Johor state election in March 2022, Sharifah, who represented BN, won the seat with a majority of 5,166 votes.

Puteri age limit

In an unrelated matter, Noraini in her speech also said there was no decision to change the upper age limit for the Puteri wing to 40.

However, it might consider lowering the age limit to 16, she said.

Currently, those between the ages of 18 and 35 can join Puteri.

“At 40, you may already have children. Then you’ll end up going for programmes with your children.

“Puteri was established so that we don’t have to join programmes with our mothers,” she said.

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