Motion to prevent presidential poll was unconstitutional - Johor Umno

KUALA LUMPUR - Johor Umno has revealed that the supplementary motion calling the need for the president and deputy president posts to not be opened for contest in the coming party polls was unconstitutional.

The irregularity of the controversial motion that was tabled by Negeri Sembilan Umno delegate at the party’s 2022 general assembly yesterday was highlighted by Iskandar Puteri Umno Deputy Division Chief Datuk Pandak Ahmad.

“I am bewildered how can this supplementary motion be accepted and debated. Perhaps, these days, everything goes in Umno.

“As per Article 30 of Umno’s Constitution and Article 10 of Assembly Orders, I noticed that the motion was incomplete and should not be debated in this general assembly,” he said in his speech at the party debate today.

According to the two articles cited by Pandak, supplementary motions must be submitted not less than 14 days before the general assembly begins.

Needling on the contentious motions, Pandak claimed that it was peculiar for the motion to be tabled in the first place.

It was so, he added, as party president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi himself had previously said that he has no problem in defending his presidential post through the ballot.

“But yesterday, we had to debate about it with reasons being that the two posts must not be opened for contest for the sake of the party's unity and stability.

"Umno Johor would like to ask, until when will some of us continue to ride on the rhetoric of party unity and party stability.

“If Umno truly wants unity and stability, why don’t we close all posts in the divisions and branches from being contested as well?

"Now wouldn't that truly unite and stabilize the party?,” was Pandak’s tongue-in-cheek riposte.