Fifty-seven candidates have registered for the Umno polls

SHAH ALAM - A total of 57 candidates have registered to contest in the 2023 Umno Election as of Feb 15.

Umno Election Committee chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad said the registered candidates will be contesting for 12 out of the 19 seats available in the Supreme Council (MKT), Wanita, Youth, and Puteri Movements of Umno.

"A total of 18 candidates have registered to run for four positions in the MKT, namely the permanent chairman, permanent deputy, and 25 other posts.

"For the Wanita wing, 14 candidates have registered while for the Youth wing, some 19 candidates have applied to be candidates. The Puteri wing will also see six candidates contesting, bringing the total to 39 candidates who have successfully registered for the wing level election," he said through a video recording on Thursday.

Shahrir said for the Wanita wing, one candidate has registered for the permanent deputy chairman position, one candidate for deputy chief, and 12 candidates to fill 20 Wanita Movement exco positions.

For the Youth movement, there is one candidate who has registered for the permanent chairman position, one candidate for chief, and 17 candidates to fill the 20 Youth exco level positions.

"For the Puteri wing, we have one candidate for permanent deputy chairman, three candidates for Puteri chief, and two candidates to fill the 20 Puteri exco level positions," he explained.

He said no individual has sent an application to contest for the president position at the MKT level.

"This is probably because candidates are checking and reviewing the applications for the positions they want to contest.

"For the important positions such as Wanita chief, there are no candidates yet, but I expect there will be a competition when all interested candidates present themselves.

"The registration process takes two weeks, and we have given enough time for the registration of the contest for certain positions.

"We expect this process to run until Feb 26, and it will become more active as more individuals register," he explained.