Incumbent Umno vice-president Ali Rustam has secured enough nominations to contest for the deputy presidency during the March party polls.

He secured his 39th nomination - the minimum required - from the Pasir Putih Umno division in Kelantan this afternoon.

umno supreme council special meeting 260809 ali rustam His qualification has guaranteed a contest against frontrunner incumbent vice-president Muhyiddin Yassin, who has 83 nominations.

Mohd Ali, currently the Malacca chief minister, now faces an uphill battle against the popular Muhyiddin who is international trade and industry minister and widely regarded as the favourite.

A third possible candidate is incumbent party supreme council member Muhammad Muhd Taib who still needs six more nominations to qualify.

Even though nomination results for about 40 divisions have yet to be decided, Muhammad's chances of qualifying are slim as the bulk of the divisions are expected to nominate Muhyiddin for the post.

VP race heats up

Meanwhile, incumbent deputy president Najib Abdul Razak has raked up a total of 150 nominations for the president's post, which he won uncontested on Nov 2 after it was certain that his sole challenger Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah could not qualify.

The latest division to nominate Najib was his home base of Pekan, Pahang. The division however did not nominate any candidates for any other posts.

Over at the vice-president race, incumbent supreme council members Jamaluddin Jarjis and Rais Yatim are edging closer towards securing the minimum 20 nominations.

Jamaluddin, the Rompin MP, has 19 nominations while Rais Yatim, the foreign minister, has 17.

Should the duo qualify, they would be adding into an already crowded race for the four vice-president's posts where six individuals have already qualified.

Leading the pack is Hishamuddin Hussein with 127 nominations, followed by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (91), Shafie Apdal (70), Khaled Nordin (66), Syed Hamid Albar (28) and Isa Samad (25).