Umno to ask delegates to vote reforms, not debate it

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — Showing seriousness in expanding democracy within Umno, the party leadership will ask its 2,400 delegates to forgo further debate but just vote to accept or reject proposals to abolish nomination quotas and expand the voting base.

The amendments propose to expand the voting base from the current 2,400 central delegates to some 146,000 delegates from branches to divisions who will choose the top leadership in one day of nation-wide elections.

“The special Umno meeting on Oct 13 is just tasked with approving or rejecting the amendments. There won’t be any debate,” a party official told The Malaysian Insider.

The special assembly is on the eve of its annual general assembly from Oct 14 to 16.

The influential Umno political bureau has also dropped a proposal to only allow supreme council members who have served for at least three terms to contest for top posts. The current proposals being voted allows anyone to contest top party posts.

The party official said delegates have had more than enough time to digest the proposals and vote rather than continue debating or fine-tuning the amendments.

Najib, along with Datin Rosmah Mansor (right), wave to the crowd before their departure to France yesterday. - Bernama pic

“Datuk Seri Najib Razak proposed the amendments at the end of March and there has been enough time for debate and tweaking the proposals. It boils down to voting, that’s all,” he added.

Najib, who took over the party presidency in March from Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had pushed to scrap the unpopular nomination quota system as it narrowed the pool of leaders eligible to contest.

Among those who have failed to qualify for the party presidency contest has been veteran party leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who has only been nominated by his Gua Musang division. Former president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad introduced the quota system when the party was reconstituted in 1988 to ensure only popular challenges.

Currently, those eyeing the presidency had to win nominations from at least 30 per cent of the 191 Umno divisions while 20 per cent of nominations was needed for the deputy presidency, 10 per cent for vice-president and 5 per cent for the supreme council.

The proposal to expand the voting base from 2,400 to 146,000 will see elections being done on a single day during which division annual general meetings are held. Each branch will send a full complement of delegates including one each from the wings — Wanita, Pemuda and Puteri.

The Umno technical committee tasked with the amendment is led by party vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein who had said the single day voting will make it harder to buy votes and will curb the practice of money politics.

Hishammuddin added that the yearly membership fee will be replaced with a one-off payment so as to do away with the hassle of unpaid fees.

However, there are no proposals to limit the term for top party officials unlike recent amendments made by Umno allies MCA and MIC, both of whom are imposing three-term limits for the party presidency.