KUALA LUMPUR: The majority of Umno division leaders want the 15th General Election (GE15) to be held as soon as possible, its Sungai Besar head Datuk Seri Jamal Md Yunos said after a special party meeting here on Monday (Aug 22).
He said the last-minute meeting of all division chiefs at Umno headquarters in the World Trade Centre KL was attended by 158 leaders, excluding some from Sabah. Umno has 191 divisions nationwide.
"This call by the (division) leaders is to call for the election at the earliest. This decision will be forwarded to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob," he told the press after the meeting.
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Asked if there was any compulsion for the Prime Minister to call for the election, Jamal said there was none.
Elaborating on Monday's meeting, he said it included a briefing session on preparedness for GE15 and the party's machinery at division level.
He also said the division leaders had a dialogue session to convey their needs to the leadership and what was necessary for the election.
"We were surprised by the last-minute call for a meeting, which began at 11am today. We had a briefing and shared views of the election, which is most likely to happen soon but we were not told when exactly.
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"It has been some time since we met with the top leaders, even though it came as a surprise to many.
"We initially thought the meeting was held because Parliament was going to be dissolved and they were going to call for an election but that was not the case.
"We are unsure why it was held (at such short notice) but (the leadership) said rather than wait for tomorrow, it is best to have it (now) to show how serious we are," he said.
Jamal also denied that there was any discussion of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's ongoing SRC International appeal at the Federal Court.
He said it was not even brought up in the meeting.
Jamal also confirmed that Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan were present.
He added that Ismail Sabri and Datuk Seri Mahadzir Khalid, who are party vice-presidents, did not attend as they had other matters to attend to.
