93. Umno postpones Assembly

The Umno supreme council dealt a blow to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi by putting off party polls and its annual general meeting to March next year in the bid to force the party leader to hand over power to his deputy.

The Umno annual general meeting, along with party elections, was originally scheduled to be held in December.

However divisional elections will proceed as scheduled from Oct 9 to Nov 9.

The decisions were made at an hour-long emergency supreme council meeting held this morning at Umno headquarters.

Abdullah had earlier said he would hand over power to his deputy, Najib Abdul Razak, in two years' time.

Speaking to reporters later, Abdullah refused to comment if he would defend his president's post at the party polls, saying that he would decide before the division-level meetings on Oct 9 - giving him a window of two weeks to .

"I have not made any decision as far as this particular point is concerned, I intend to do it before the division meetings begin," he said.

"The decision is mine, you can go on guessing. As far as I'm concerned, I love the party." 

"The postponement of the AGM is to facilitate the transition plan," he added. 

Asked by reporters if he would be going on leave soon, Abdullah said: "I'm not going on leave ... I have lots of work to do." - Malaysiakini.