Malaysian Ruling Party Postpones Elections

By SEAN YOONG / AP WRITER

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia's ruling party signaled Friday that the increasingly unpopular prime minister may step down by March, but pledged to allow him a "dignified" exit from politics.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said after chairing an emergency meeting of the United Malays National Organization that he will announce within two weeks whether he will defend his post as the party's chief in March party elections.

Every prime minister since Malaysia's independence in 1957 has been the UMNO president.

Abdullah said the party's policy-making body decided Friday to postpone the elections to choose its leaders by three months to March to "facilitate early transition" of power.

He refused to confirm if this meant he would not contest the elections, saying he would reveal his decision before October 9, when the party's district officials start meeting to nominate candidates for the ballot.

"It will be my decision whether to contest or not. You can go on guessing but the decision will be mine," Abdullah told a news conference.

Abdullah, who took office in October 2003, has been facing calls to step down to accept responsibility for leading the UMNO-dominated National Front ruling coalition to disastrous results in general elections last March.

The prime minister previously promised to hand over power to his deputy, Najib Razak, in 2010 instead of 2013 when his term ends. But party dissidents said that was too long and demanded that he retire before the ruling party's next elections.

By postponing the elections, UMNO's top leaders appear to have struck a compromise that would allow the 68-year-old Abdullah to exit gracefully.

Trade Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who has urged Abdullah to consider retiring earlier, said Friday's decision may indicate that March "is the new deadline" for Abdullah to hand over power.

"We want to ensure that the power transition process does not affect (Abdullah's) honor. It must be done in a dignified manner," Muhyiddin told reporters.

However, veteran party lawmaker Razaleigh Hamzah, who wants to contest the party leadership, said the election postponement showed that Abdullah and Najib were "playing this endless children's game of 'yours and mine' with the most important job in the country."

The urgency to boot out Abdullah is also partly because of concerns that he may be incapable of dealing with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is threatening to engineer enough defections from the ruling party to bring down the government.

Anwar's People's Alliance coalition won an unprecedented 82 seats in the 222-member Parliament in March and took control of five of Malaysia's 13 states. Abdullah's National Front now has only a 28-seat majority in Parliament.

Anwar told reporters on a visit to Hong Kong on Friday that his plan to seize power was not affected by the possibility that Abdullah might quit soon.

"The issue is not whether Prime Minister Abdullah leaves or his deputy takes over. The issue is they have lost the mandate of the people and they have to contend with that," Anwar said.