KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today said that it was clear from the recent Umno internal elections that the party’s grassroots want the current government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be "strengthened”.

Speaking to the press after a Unity Government Secretariat meeting, the deputy prime minister said that there was unity shown during the Umno elections as approximately 160,000 of its delegates showed up to vote during the division and supreme council-level election yesterday.

"We are also confident of the support from the friends within Barisan Nasional and the friends from Sabah and Sarawak in this unity government,” he said at the Umno Headquarters in Menara Dato’ Onn here.

Among the 25 Umno supreme council members voted in yesterday were International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz and Umno information chief Isham Jalil.

The elections for the party wings — Wanita, Youth, and Puteri — were held simultaneously but earlier, on March 11.