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KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's top ethnic Chinese political party failed Thursday to resolve a leadership crisis that is hampering the ruling coalition's efforts to claw back support from the minority community.
The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a member of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, has been gripped by a power struggle between its president Ong Tee Keat and a rival who was suspended over a sex tape scandal.
MCA members last Saturday issued a vote of no confidence against Ong, and overturned the suspension of former health minister Chua Soi Lek who was forced to leave the cabinet last year over the sex tape affair.
Ong was expected Thursday to tell the party's 42-member central committee, its highest decision-making body, whether he will quit or fight on against Chua, who had served as the party's deputy president.
But instead he called for a special meeting to decide whether to hold fresh leadership polls, just a year after the last round, saying that Saturday's votes were "inconclusive" and that the grassroots was divided.
"The (special meeting) will allow delegates to end the impasse over whether the central committee should seek a fresh mandate," he said in a statement.
A senior MCA source who attended Thursday's crisis talks said there was no resolution in sight to the party's problems.
"There is no clear indication that whether Ong is going to stay or resign... but it looks like he is not going to resign," he told AFP.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has urged the MCA to resolve its problems, which are a headache for the Barisan Nasional which urgently needs to woo back support from ethnic Chinese and Indians.
The leading Indian party in the coalition, the Malaysian Indian Congress, has also defied calls for a new leadership that could help win back minority voters who shifted towards the opposition in 2008 general elections.
- AFP /ls
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