GENTING HIGHLANDS, July 3- Umno may conduct an introductory session for prospective candidates in the party polls, said its deputy president, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“As there is no campaigning period, if deemed fit, we may ask state Umno liaison committees to conduct an introductory session for candidates,” he told reporters after opening the National Seminar on Management and Education Leadership 2013 at the Aminuddin Baki Institute (IAB) here yesterday.
On the just concluded nationwide briefing on the polls method and procedures, the deputy prime minister said he learned that Umno members at all levels understood the new rules although they was new to them.
“But there were also those who didn’t know that the new election method emanated from an amendment to the Umno Constitution which was approved at the Umno general assembly.
“More that 145,000 delegates from the divisions will be voting this time around compared to only about 2,000 previously,” he added.
He said with the new method, the party’s electoral roll would be verified while branch and divisional delegates meetings should have sufficient quorum, otherwise it would affect the results at the divisional and the Supreme Council (MT) levels.
“The most important thing is that we want to fine tune the process of how to conduct the polls. There is still time, I hope there will be no matters arising. We want to make sure that no technical problems may arise in conducting the polls,” he said.
The election at the branch level will be from July 15 to Aug 31 while that of the division and top office bearers have yet to be determined.
Umno Election Committee chairman Tan Sri Tajol Rosli Ghazali had said that the Umno election at the end of the year would use the ‘electoral college’ system which merges the election systems from the United States and United Kingdom.
Based on the system, if two candidates obtained an identical number of votes, the result would then depend on the votes of each of the 191 divisions nationwide.
– BERNAMA
