JOHOR BARU, June 29 — Controversial blogger and political commentator Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, or more popularly known as Papagomo, claimed that Umno’s frozen bank accounts were a signal from Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for party delegates to pick the right leader tomorrow.

Wan Muhammad Azri said he was confident that if a wrong choice was made, the government will end up deregistering and banning Umno on Monday.

"However, I believe if Umno presidential hopeful Khairy Jamaluddin wins the party election tomorrow, Dr Mahathir may not deregister or ban Umno, " said the 35-year-old who is a newly-minted national Umno Youth executive committee member after winning last week’s party wing election.

Wan Muhammad Azri, who has had access to confidential political information in the past, said the reason was simply because it is clear that the people want immediate change in Umno, and Khairy will be the top choice for that to happen.

He claimed that if Khairy wins, it would then be impossible for Dr Mahathir to ban Umno because the move may cause the people to reject him and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ruling coalition.

"We (Umno) have no power to rule anymore and we are now left with only our dignity to redeem the party and be accepted by the people,” said Wan Muhammad Azri.

Tomorrow will see more than 117,000 Umno members from branch and divisional levels nationwide selecting the new leadership line-up to chart the future direction of the party that was nearly decimated in the recently concluded 14th general election.

Among those vying for Umno’s top posts will be veteran party member Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, together with former Cabinet ministers Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Khairy Jamaluddin.

Yesterday, Umno acting president and presidential hopeful Ahmad Zahid revealed in Johor Baru that the bank accounts of the party’s headquarters as well as those of its Selangor chapter had been frozen by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Later, it was confirmed that Umno’s bank accounts were frozen in its investigations on state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Last month, it was claimed by Umno members that some of the monies seized from premises linked to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak were party election funds.