‘There will be new faces in VP line-up’

There will be one or even two new vice-presidents in the Umno polls on Saturday, says Cheras Umno division chief Syed Ali Alhabshee.

PETALING JAYA: Cheras Umno division chief Syed Ali Alhabshee is confident of a change in the vice-president line-up on Saturday despite incumbents Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahrizat Abdul Jalil retaining their posts of Youth and Wanita chief.

“Trust me, there are ways of changing the leaders. We are not going to change all, but there will surely be one or even two leaders, who we will change,” Syed Ali told FMT.

He was responding to analysts predictions that there would not be a change in the vice-presidential lineup following the delegates’ vote for stability in the party wings’ over the
weekend.

“You cannot say everything is going to remain. It will ultimately depend on members to think what is best for the party,” he added.

Syed Ali said his division did not vote for Shahrizat, who had her career derailed by her husband’s alleged involvement in the National Feedlot Centre scandal that PKR began exposing in 2011.

“We don’t mind being one of the few against it because we have principles, that’s why we nominated Maznah.

“But I still believe the members will do what is best for the party when casting their votes for the party’s vice-presidents,” he said.

About 146,000 members from 191 divisions nationwide will cast their votes on Saturday to elect the vice-presidents and supreme council members.

Party president Najib Tun Razak and his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin, werereturned unopposed. This is the first Umno elections in which grassroots members in the divisions are allowed to vote.

Khairy and Shahrizat retained their posts by easily obtaining votes from more than 96 divisions.  Mas Ermieyati Samsudin also emerged as the new Puteri Umno chief.

Some 33,012 candidates contested in the three wings with 247,000 voting papers distributed at the 572 voting stations. About 20,000 election volunteers managed the polling at the centres.