- AZMAN GHANI/The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The stage is set for Umno president Datuk.Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to address party delegates at the annual Umno general assembly here.

Ahmad Zahid, who will be delivering the presidential address, is expected to focus on Muafakat Nasional – the alliance between Umno and PAS – as the "new deal" in politics.

This will be the second year that he will be addressing the delegates as Umno president.

Ahmad Zahid, who arrived at the Putra World Trade Centre at 8.30am was ushered towards the flag-raising ceremony and inspected the guard of honour mounted by members of Umno's Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings.

A total of 2,694 delegates are attending the general assembly this year.

Delivering the party report, secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa said Umno had increased its party membership to 3.292 million, despite challenges faced by the party with some members moving to other parties.

He said a review was conducted on the party's membership roll between Feb 15 to Dec this year.

"I would like to report that previously we had about 3.06 million members.

"Despite the political challenges that hit the party, some remained while others had left.

"After a review, we found only two% had joined opposing parties, but many have returned," he said, adding that four% of its members had passed away.

"Umno continues to be strong with the latest number of members recorded at 3.29 million after cleaning up our membership roll," he said in his speech at the opening of Umno General Assembly 2019 at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) on Friday (Dec 6).

Annuar said that there were 11,363 new applications via its online membership system which was set up in May, adding that it there were 28,000 new members, managed at division level.

He also noted that the party would prepare a blueprint for the 15th General Election that will be the basis of its Muafakat Nasional action plan managed by both PAS and Umno.

He said a Muafakat Nasional permanent secretariat was established at Menara Dato' Onn PWTC to realise the cooperation, based on the technical steering joint committee between the Islamist party and Umno.