All eyes will be on the Gua Musang Umno division annual general meeting tomorrow where division chief Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is expected to receive his first nomination to contest the post of party president.

tengku razaleigh Razaleigh was first to announce his intention to run for the post but thus far, all 105 of the 191 Umno divisions that have met, have nominated incumbent deputy president, Najib Abdul Razak , for the post.

Should Gua Musang delegates provide their leader with his first nomination, it will likely be his sole nomination - a scenario similar to the one in 2004 when he tried to contest against incumbent president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Razaleigh’s maiden attempt for the Umno presidency was in 1986 when he narrowly lost to incumbent Dr Mahathir Mohamad, with 718 votes to the latter’s 761.

This year, it is a forgone conclusion he will again fail to qualify, leaving Najib with an uncontested win.

Disputed Youth wing meetings

The Gua Musang division is in the spotlight for having two Youth wing meetings.

khir toyo 181207 On Oct 23, the first meeting was held, which saw the election of Bazlan Baharuddin as division youth wing head and the nomination of Dr Mohd Khir Toyo for national youth wing head.

A second meeting was convened two days later, although the circumstances leading to it are still unclear.

According to Razaleigh, Umno headquarters had ordered the Gua Musang youth wing to reconvene because instructions at the division level were not heeded.

The second meeting saw the election of Mohd Azizi Abu Naim as division youth head and the nomination of incumbent deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin to contest the post of national youth wing chief.

Yesterday, however, Umno headquarters announced that it recognised the first meeting and not the second.

Khairy falls to No 3 in race

Kelantan Umno liason chief Annuar Musa said Umno headquarters had came to the decision after going through detailed reports of the first meeting.

khairy jamaluddin Prior to the recognition of the first meeting, Khairy had 48 nominations ahead of Khir who has 47. Now, the figures have been swapped, with Khairy trailing behind Mukhriz Mahathir and Khir.

Khairy was initially the favourite to win the contest but Mukhriz is currently leading with 70 nominations, well above the 39 needed to qualify.

ali rustam Observers are also keen to see if candidate for the deputy president’s post and incumbent vice-president, Mohd Ali Rustam , secures more nominations this weekend. So far, he has only secured 23 of the minimum 39 nominations.

Given that there are only 86 divisions yet to meet, the outcome of the meetings this weekend would indicate if Mohd Ali still has a chance of running against incumbent vice-president Muhyiddin Yassin.

muhyiddin yasin muhyiddin yassin Muhyiddin, who is seen to be Najib’s running mate, is well ahead with 70 nominations. The third contender, Muhammad Muhd Taib, has only 17 nominations.