KUALA LUMPUR: The Umno wings elections were a long-drawn affair at the Putra World Trade Centre.
As of midnight, there was still no official announcement although DaÂÂÂtuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad and Datuk Zahida Zarik Khan appeared to be ahead in the race for the Youth, WaÂnita and Puteri wings respectively.
A majority of the 150,000 delegates from 191 divisions and 20,000 party branches, who voted for the new chiefs, seemed to favour the trio.
As at 12.30am today, Asyraf who is also a supreme council member and Pahang Youth chief Mohd Shahar Abdullah were in a close race in their battle for the Umno Youth chief post.
Both Asyraf and Mohd Shahar obtained the support of 20 divisions each but got 2,767 and 2,541 delegate votes respectively.
Sungai Besar division chief Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos, who also contested the post, failed to win over any division, receiving the support of only 40 delegates.
Khairul Azwan Harun, the vice-chief when Khairy Jamaluddin helmed the Youth wing, got the backing from 15 divisions and 1,835 delegates.
As for the Wanita chief post, it was a neck-and-neck race between Dr Noraini and Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun from the get go.
Both had the support of 32 divisions each but the delegate votes differed with Dr Noraini leading the tally with 8,974 votes. Azizah had 7,456 delegate votes.
The other contender, former Wanita chief Tan Sri Siti Zaharah Sulaiman, failed to capture the support of any division but got the votes of 531 delegates.
Zahida is the clear favourite for the Puteri chief post, obtaining the backing from 71 divisions and 5,518 delegates.
Her contender Nor Hazreena Mohamad Hashim managed to win over just nine divisions and 1,049 votes from delegates.
Umno executive secretary Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh told an earlier press conference last night that 74 of the 191 Umno division chiefs had won uncontested.
Some of the big names who won were Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (Pekan), Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Bagan Datuk), Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (Jeli), Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (Pengerang), Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (Sembrong), Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz (Padang Rengas), Tan Sri Noh Omar (Tanjong Karang), Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (Putrajaya), Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid (Padang Terap), Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir (Lumut) and Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (Kinabatangan).
As for division Youth chiefs, Ab Rauf said 85 of them won uncontested. They included Najib’s son, MohaÂmad Nizar Mohamad Najib, who became the Pekan Youth chief.
The official results are expected to be announced at 5pm today.
Ab Rauf said this was decided as the headquarters had yet to get the full results from many divisions as of midnight.
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