Umno clears ‘big hurdle’ after RoS approval, says analyst

 

Umno will now be able to hold party elections after the general election. (Umno Online pic)

PETALING JAYA: Umno has cleared a big hurdle with the approval of its constitutional amendment to postpone party elections, a political analyst said.

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said the Registrar of Societies had no reason to reject the application as Umno had abided by all the rules when submitting it.

“The decision is not surprising but it’s a bad look for the RoS that it took more than two months to make a decision,” he told FMT.

Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan said earlier today that the approval of the amendment will allow Umno to postpone its party elections for up to six months after a general election, or up to 18 months from the end of its leadership’s term.

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The party elections would have to be held before Dec 30 if the amendments had not been approved.

Azmi said Umno avoided a “big hurdle” and any internal conflicts or division that may have arisen if party polls had to be held.

Another analyst, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid of Universiti Sains Malaysia, said it was pertinent that the approval came a day after Perikatan Nasional voiced its disappointment with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob over his failure to fulfil promises he made to the coalition.

“It looks increasingly clear that the likes of Muhyiddin Yassin and Hamzah Zainudin, whose ministry supervises the RoS, have all but given up on the prime minister as a strategic ally,” he said.

Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs said with the approval, Umno was now firmly in party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s control until after the next general election.

He said Zahid will now have control over the party’s choice for its prime ministerial candidate. - FMT