KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — The RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s accounts were donations from Umno supporters, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

“I was made to understand the contribution came from supporters and donors,” Khairy was quoted as saying by news portal Malaysiakini today.

The youth and sports minister then cited a statement from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to support his remark.

The MACC yesterday revealed that its investigations found that the RM2.6 billion was not from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) as previously claimed, but were donations.

It did not specify the source of the donations.

Khairy added that he also assumed that the RM2.6 billion was “obviously” for political purposes, based on the MACC’s statement that the amount was a donation.

“Let’s see what’s going to happen to the special task force... even MACC said it wants to look at the some of the aspects,”he was quoted further in the Malaysiakini report.

Up until the MACC’s revelation yesterday, the Najib administration was fending off allegations that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been funnelled from 1MDB into the prime minister’s personal accounts.

But questions remain over how the sum was purposed as both the anti-graft investigators and Umno have remained silent on the subject.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday said that spending RM2.6 billion in a single election would violate electoral laws that limit campaign spending to RM200,000 in federal seats and RM100,000 for state constituencies.