Umno supreme council will decide in the next three weeks whether to accept the return of former Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) members, including Ezam Mohd Nor, into the party.

Umno information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib said the matter has to be decided at the supreme council level, which will next be held in three weeks' time.

The rural and regional development minister told this to reporters today at his ministry's function in Putrajaya.

ezam joins back umno 280508 03 Former PKR Youth chief Ezam and former PKR Permatang Pauh division head Anuar Shaari had last week submitted application forms to rejoin the party.

In Ezam's case, he submitted his form straight to Umno president and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who had said that while the supreme council must approve the application, he nevertheless approved the return.

"He wants to come back to Umno. I accept him," Abdullah had said, adding that there were no objections from other Umno members.

Branches may delay re-admissions

However as a procedure, the supreme council will have to approve their readmission, and the matter would be tabled by Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor.

Muhammad also did not rule out the possibility that there were several cases where applications to become members of the party had taken a long time.

Most of these delays occurred at the branch level and not at the higher level, he said, according to Bernama .

"There were specific cases, but if these cases were to be brought to the attention of the supreme council, the applications would have been approved immediately," he said.