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KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's ruling party may delay internal elections, officials said on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to shield Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from pressure to quit after poor poll results.
In the wake of the disastrous showing in March 8 general elections by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), officials said party leaders had urged Abdullah to postpone the meeting, which had been tipped for August.
"They have recommended that party elections be held next year," UMNO information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.
"They said that if it is held this year it will spark havoc and disaster. So they said it will be good if it can be postponed to 2009," he said, adding that it could be held in June next year.
Muhammad said UMNO's supreme council will make a decision when it meets on Thursday. The party was scheduled to hold elections last year, but they were delayed due to the March 8 polls.
One party official told AFP there was a feeling that an open challenge to the premier could threaten the stability of UMNO, which has ruled Malaysia for half a century.
"It may bring disaster to the party. Their suggestion is to postpone the election to next year," he said on condition of anonymity.
UMNO maverick Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a former finance minister and a member of Malaysia's royalty, has said he would challenge Abdullah if he received enough support.
After the March 8 elections which saw the UMNO-led coalition lose its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in four decades, he called on the entire leadership to step down, saying the coalition had been "defeated and shamed on a scale without precedent in our history."
Former premier Mahathir Mohamad has also called on Abdullah to resign.
Abdullah has claimed a mandate to rule despite the election losses, but observers say he is on borrowed time as calls for his resignation persist.
He won a landslide victory in 2004 elections, but was punished in the latest polls over high inflation, rising crime rates and ethnic tensions in the multi-cultural nation. - AFP/de
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