Mukhriz says Bersatu mulling letting Dr M, Muhyiddin and himself unopposed in party polls

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — The top three leadership posts of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) will likely be uncontested in its inaugural party election, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir said today.

Mukhriz, himself the deputy president whose post may be unopposed, said the suggestion was recently raised by party division leaders.

“The word we hear coming from division leaders is that they are suggesting that the top three positions not to be contested. That is chairman, president, and deputy president.

“What it means is that if someone is nominated for those positions, then they will be allowed to contest.

“But there are suggestions on the ground discouraging anyone from contesting at least the chairmanship. It is given that we still want him as the chairman,” Mukhriz told reporters, when asked which position his father Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will contest.

At present Dr Mahathir holds the chairman post, while Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is the president.

Mukhriz said he will be defending his deputy president post at the party election, in which the date will be determined during the PPBM Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on July 20.

When quizzed by reporters, the Jerlun MP said his father would also be likely defending his position, adding that no party members intend to contest the top post.

“Yes, I suppose so. When you say defend, it’s like someone wants to go against him. So far no one wants to go against him.

“He will continue as the chairman of the party. Whether the decision will be contested or not is not yet seen. We have not heard of anyone interested in that,” said Mukhriz, who said those who would want to contest would need to have been a party member for a year or more.

Mukhriz said the upcoming EGM will be held to pass the amendments made to the party constitution, as he said a lot of the content was adopted from Umno’s constitution.

“As you know we almost cut and paste the Umno constitution and took it into Bersatu. We now need to look at how to conduct our elections.

“In fact, Umno themselves have moved on and amended their constitution and ours is still old. We need to look into that and we hope our members will agree to that,” he said.

Mukhriz, who is also the Kedah Mentri Besar, said the EGM will also discuss whether the party would still continue the one-member-one-vote system for the supreme council positions.