Sabah’s Azizah is now Wanita deputy

KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah Umno has furthered its influence at federal level through Azizah Mohd Dun who won the vice-president post in the Women wing.

Azizah is now wing president Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s number two.

Both Azizah and Zahida Zarik Khan were declared the new Umno Wanita and Puteri vice-chiefs respectively last night after coming out tops at the party wings elections on Saturday.

Umno Election Committee chairman Tajol Rosli Ghazali announced the results at Menara Dato Onn here, saying as at 8.40 pm Azizah was leading by 127 votes against her opponent Suraya Yaacob, who had 52.

This placed Azizah as the right-hand person to Shahrizat Abdul Jalil who retained her Wanita chief post after defeating Maznah Mazlan and Raihan Suleiman Palestin.

Tajol Rosli also said that support for Shahrizat continued to rise with total votes for her now at 172, compared to eight for Maznah while Raihan failed to garner any.

Also announced at the press conference was the result for the Wanita Deputy Permanent Chairman which was won by its incumbent Saripah Aminahbi Syed Mohd by 116 votes defeating Mastika Junaidah Husin who had 63 votes.

As for the Puteri movement Zahida won with 99 votes against her two contenders Norsabrina Mohd Noor (50 votes) and Nazliah Ali (33 votes).

Zahida will join force with Mas Ermieyati Samsudin the new Puteri Chief replacing Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin, who did not contest due to age factor.

The Permanent Chairman and Deputy Permanent Chairman posts were won uncontested by Azlieza Azizan and Nurul Huda Nordin Ahmad, respectively.

According to Tajol Rosli, all the votes for the Wanita and Puteri wings were counted through the electoral college method as there were no problems with draws.

The Election Committee also announced the central executive committee winners for the Wanita, Puteri and Youth movements.

On the counting of votes which had yet to cover all the 191 party divisions, Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor clarified that the ballot boxes from a number of divisions had not been received by the head quarters due to several reasons.

However, it would not jeopardise the results which have been announced so far, he added.