UMNO Election and Traffic Jam

I was glued to the TV most of tonight waiting for the UMNO election results. The Wanita wing has been announced where Dato' Seri Shahrizat absolutely trounced the incumbent Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz by a majority of 327. I wonder what have been going through Rafidah's mind because common wisdom dictates that she should have stepped down. The suspicion is Rafidah was planning to plant her people in Wanita UMNO hierarchy before stepping proper, forcing Shahrizat, 10 years Rafidah's junior, should she be competing and won the Deputy post will have to be an acting Head for the next 3 years with Rafidah's pals are in the higher echelon. Well, that is just my 2 sen. Credit to Shahrizat, she tried her hardest to defuse the situation during her acceptance speech.

The Puteri wing leaders has been decided, but I did not have the chance to peruse through the candidates. As for the UMNO Youth, the results has not been announced yet at the time I am writing this blog. I will update later.

I don't really have much of preference at this point in time in terms of who I wanted to win for the wing leaderships. I am however keen to know who the Deputy President will be as he will be the next Deputy Prime Minister. I got a strong feeling that it will go to Tan Sri Muhyidin. To be honest, there aren't that many alternatives in the current crop of leaders.

The way UMNO election works is by representative democracy. The basic unit in the UMNO structure is called a branch. The next unit up is the division. Each division, depending on it member size will have a quota of 'representatives' to the UMNO election held every three years. These 'representatives' are the ones who will be casting the votes. Although the system is thought to be more efficient, in terms of time and cost, it is certainly open for manipulation with money and power. In the week leading up to the election, the were a few revelations made by the UMNO Disciplinary Committee concerning abuse of power. A candidate for the Deputy President was consequently barred only last week, definitely raising a few eye-brows.

The thing that bothered me the most about the UMNO meeting is the fact that I have to endure a traffic jam en route home. The venue where the event was held is right next to the main ring road in KL. I have to remember to avoid the area tomorrow, when I think the meeting will start to heat up. I'll probably retire early tonight as I am still recovering from the weekend trip to Ipoh.

I have also updated Idlan's photo page earlier.

Update on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 12:28AM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Khairy won the Youth Head post. Listening to excerpts of his acceptance speech now.