PETALING JAYA: The internal bickering in Umno following the naming of candidates for the GE15 would not cause the party too much damage in the polls, The Malaysian Insight reports.
Dr Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said the anger from “some” Umno members was confined to only a small number of places.
He described it as a small-scale response to Zahid (Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) and would not impact Umno as a whole.
“There is an impact, but it will only be in the affected areas such as in Arau or Kangar, not the entire Umno.
“But how bad will it be... that depends on how Umno’s top leaders handle it.
“They will know what to do because Umno is an old party. Retaliation like this is normal and this is not the first time,” he reportedly said.
Dr Mazlan also pointed out that Zahid did the right thing by replacing MPs who are not on the same page as the president.
He said Umno could still win the seats where the incumbents were replaced as Umno members would still vote for the party regardless of the candidates.
Meanwhile, Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said the internal conflict in Umno can be resolved before nomination day.
He echoed Dr Mazlan’s sentiment saying that the conflict was not as bad as it looked.
On Tuesday, Umno president and Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Zahid dropped several veteran Umno lawmakers as election candidates.
Following that, there had been cases of Umno/BN service centres in these affected areas being closed.