KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan has denied that Umno was afraid to hold party elections, saying that, for now, it was focusing on strengthening and forging closer ties among its members.
The MP for Pontian said if internal polls were conducted now, some candidates could end up losing their posts, and this, in turn, would create disunity among Umno members to the detriment of the party ahead of the next general election (GE15).
Speaking to Utusan Malaysia, Ahmad Maslan said even if they were to go ahead, the focus of the party elections would not be the 56 seats on its supreme council, but rather the 191 Youth and Women’s divisions as well as 21,156 Umno branches nationwide.
“Taking into consideration all these factors, Umno doesn’t want to hold party elections that could cause internal divisions before GE15. If this happens, others could weaken Umno by taking advantage of the situation with seat offers in their party,” he said.
Ahmad Maslan added that 75 per cent of Puteri Umno and 65 per cent of Umno Youth leadership would be over the ages of 35 and 40 respectively, meaning if party elections were to proceed before GE15, these leaders would have to relinquish their posts ahead of national polls.
Umno elections were initially due to be held on June 30, 2021 as the office bearers’ three-year term would have expired by then.
But the party previously maintained that its supreme council had validly postponed the polls by the maximum 18 months allowed under its own constitution.
The party is required by law to hold its elections by December 29 this year.
On May 15, delegates at the party’s extraordinary general meeting unanimously passed several resolutions to amend its constitution, including allowing internal elections after GE15.
At present, Umno is waiting to hear if the Registrar of Societies (RoS) will approve its constitutional amendment application. The RoS has until July 16 to announce its decision.
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