Umno assembly in December on, GE-13 likely to be in January 2012

Despite speculation that Prime Minister Najib Razak is poised to dissolve Parliament on Friday and call for the country's 13th general election next month, the latest from the Umno grapevine is that he will wait until after the party's annual assembly due to be held in the first week of December.

"As Tengku Adnan pointed, Umno needs to gather the biggest crowd ever to its assembly to get all the members fired up before GE-13. The latest is that the assembly is on track. No cancellation as speculated. So by inference, this means there won't be dissolution of Parliament tomorrow. But we think he will dissolve Parliament on December 9," an Umno watcher toldMalaysia Chronicle.

Corruption scandals

It is believed that while Najib has sole discretion over when to call for elections, the Umno supreme council has made it clear to him to wait. To rush into GE-13 amid the slew of bad press that has hit several Umno leaders in recent weeks would be "suicide".

Already a book written by a former Umno division chief entitled The Mistakes of Najib is circulating around the country, calling on Najib to quit before the party takes on its biggest battle against the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

His deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin, who tried to beat the racial war drums using the PPSMI issue to gain favour with Umno's mostly Malay members, had to drop the idea after a public 'warning' from influential ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad. Muhyiddin was forced to allow those already learing Mathematics and Science in English to continue doing so although he had previously said there would be no concessions.

Women's chief Shahrizat Jalil is another leader, who might find it tough to face party delegates after accusations that her family had allegedly siphoned off more than RM80 million from the National Feedlot Centre beef production project to other family-owned businesses.

January 2012 the latest forecast

Meanwhile, the Chinese press took as a signal of elections next month news that Najib would all retired BN MPs on Thursday.

"It is learnt that BN has prepared its campaign posters and fliers. Most of the campaign materials were printed in China and delivered to Malaysia in containers," the Kwong Wah Yit Poh said in a report.

Nonetheless, given the latest development, it is unlikely Parliament will be dissolved this week. Chances are now higher for dissolution of Parliament in December and snap polls to be held in January 2012.

"The GE date is a shifting target but I think more or less it will be very early next year after the Budget 2012 goodies have been paid out," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

"It is still too soon because the electoral reforms have not been touched at all."

Malaysia Chronicle