Former Selangor Menteri Besar Muhammad Muhd Taib today gained the required nominations to vie for the Umno deputy president post.

He will be challenging two present vice-presidents Muhyiddin Yassin and Mohd Ali Rustam.

umno nomination 2009 updated at 6 34 pm on 091108 Muhd Taib became the last person to check in with the required 39 nominations after getting the nod from the Kelana Jaya and Hulu Terengganu divisions today.

Mohd Ali gained his minimum nominations yesterday.

The frontrunner for the deputy post remains Muhyiddin who had already amassed 88 nominations. He qualified for the contest by acquiring the required nominations on Oct 19.

The division-level meetings end today, except for some divisions whose meetings have been ordered by the party to be reconvened.

As it stands, the present deputy, Najib Abdul Razak is set to become the next party president after having won nominations from almost all 191 Umno divisions.

His own division, Pekan, naturally nominated him for the top post yesterday. He was also returned unopposed as the division chief.

Only Gua Musang had nominated someone else for the top post - that of its division head Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. However his challenge will not take place as he had failed to obtain the required minimum 58 nominations from the top post.

Present president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had decided to step down in March allowing for a smooth takeover by Najib.

The question is as to who will become Najib's deputy from the trio of Muhyiddin, Muhd Taib and Mohd Ali. The contest next March is the first for the deputy president's post in 21 years.

By convention, the Umno president becomes the prime minister while the deputy president is slated to be the deputy premier.

As for Abdullah, although he is not contesting for the top post, he was nevertheless retained as the Kepala Batas division head today.

Vice-presidents' race

Apart from the race for the deputy president, the heat is also on for the three slots for the vice-president's posts.

Today - the final day of meetings for the divisions, two other candidates qualified to make it an eight-cornered fight.

The last two to make it were Jamaluddin Jarjis and Rais Yatim who both gained the required minimum 21 nominations today.

Leading the race is the outgoing Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein who has already gotten 143 nominations.

He is followed by former Youth chief Ahmad Zahid Hamidi with 103 nominations.

Shafie Apdal has 78 nominations and looks set to give a tough fight based on his support from his home base Sabah.

Others in the contest are Khaled Nordin (79), Syed Hamid Albar (30) and disgraced former vice-president Isa Samad (26).

Time however ran out for former Malacca chief minister Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik who failed to win the six nominations he badly needed to fulfil the required minimum 20 nominations to contest for this post.

The race for Wanita, Youth

As for the Youth chief post, frontrunner Mukhriz Mahathir today saw a real potential challenger in former Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo who chalked up a total of 62 nominations compared to Mukhriz's 74.

The third candidate, Khairy Jamaluddin stood at 52 nominations. He received the nomination today from his own division, Rembau, amidst a commotion by some disgruntled delegates.

The delegates were unhappy when division chairman Murad Khatani closed the nominations soon after Khairy's name was proposed.

For the Youth deputy chief post, Muar MP Razali Ibrahim collected another nomination from the Ampang Youth division to lead the field with 99 nominations followed by Youth executive committee member Reezal Merican Naina Merican, who mantained his score at 75.

In Wanita meanwhile, the wing's head Rafidah Aziz continued her lead for the post after receiving another nomination from Wanita Penampang division to raise her total to 113.

Wanita deputy chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil increased her score for the post to 73 when she received nominations from the Bukit Bendera, Beluran and Sipitang Wanita divisions today.

For the post of deputy chief, Shahrizat maintained her lead with 110 nominations with Wanita executive committee member Kamilia Ibrahim some distance behind with 55 nominations.

Shahrizat has not given any indication if she would contest for the top post.

Rafidah had previously said that she would hand over the wing to Shahrizat next June but there is mounting pressure for the incumbent deputy chief to challenge her boss.