SHAH ALAM - The grassroot insistence for Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to be re-appointed as prime minister that are echoing in Umno despite the party's upper echelon's previous assurance that such will be the case seemed rather odd.
For political anaylst Oh Ei Sun, the scenario can be read as the party's rank and file issuing a tacit warning to its leaders that they should not be hatching any scheme to justify pulling a u-turn on their pledge over Ismail Sabri PM candidacy.
"Nowadays, there are many discreet narratives that talks about the plausibility of naming Zahid (Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) as the PM candidate," Oh remarked.
As such, he deemed it interesting for the Pontian division and other few divisions declaring their support for Ismail Sabri.
Should this indeed be the case, Oh noted that it would hardly be surprising.
"It is an open secret that the maintstream faction in Umno, led by Zahid, finds Ismail Sabri as being too disobedient.
"Even the dissolution of parliament was only done after a year of explicit and implicit urging by Umno leaderhsip, which Ismail Sabri finally buckled under intense pressure," Oh recalled.
In its latest annual assembly, Umno's top leadership had assured party members that Ismail Sabri will be their poster boy for the 15th General Election adding that he will get to resume his premiereship if Barisan Nasional (BN) wins the national poll.
However, being made into a poster boy is not a sure-fire guarantee that there will be zero political hiccups.
For example, in March when Umno won the Johor state election, its poster boy for the MB seat, Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad was ultimately sidelined party leadership and replaced by Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi as the new MB.
Be that as it may, another political expert, Dr Azmi Hassan was of a different view from Oh.
He believed that BN will likely stick to Ismail Sabri as the coalition's prime minister candidate.
Azmi added that it is not necessary for the divisions of Pontian and Ketereh to show support for Ismail Sabri since it has already been decided that he will be PM if BN comes to power.
He conjectured that it was possible that the two divisions showed their support for Ismail Sabri just to instil confidence or to put forward the perception that he is BN’s candidate of choice.
"I think it is more along the lines of to prop and liven up the mood; the same way they nominated Datuk Seri Najib Razak (jailed former prime minister) as their candidate for the Pekan parliamentary seat.
"They know it is quite impossible for Najib to be their candidate but they did that to show solidarity to Najib.
"I think it is done just to instil confidence,” said Azmi from Akademi Nusantara.