Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Wednesday that he would not defend his post as president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) at the party's general assembly next March, media reported.
Badawi made the announcement after chairing a BN supreme council meeting at the Putra World Trade Center here, according to Malaysia 's national news agency Bernama.
Badawi would also step down as Prime Minister and chairman of the ruling Coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), or National Front, after that, Bernama reported.
This means that the transition of power to Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Abdul Razak, which was previously fixed for June 2010, would take place more than a year earlier, according to Bernama.
Malaysia's English-language newspaper The Star also quoted Badawi as saying that the original June 2010 plan to hand over power as Prime Minister and UMNO president was now off.
On Sept. 26 this year, a special UMNO supreme council meeting decided that the UMNO general assembly and supreme council elections, scheduled for Dec. 16 to 20 this year, would be postponed to March next year to facilitate an early transition of power from Badawi to Najib.
Under the current BN system, the UMNO president is also the country's prime minister and BN chairman, according to Bernama.
Source: Xinhua
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