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Mahathir retains top party post

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Sunday clinched enough support to easily win re-election as president of Malaysia's dominant party as his sole challenger's bid failed.

A total of 133 of 165 divisions of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) nominated Mahathir to stand for president, assuring him victory in the May 11 party leadership election, the official Bernama news agency said.

His only challenger, former finance minister Razaleigh Hamzah, won the support of only one division earlier this month.

Under UMNO rules, a candidate must be nominated by at least 50 divisions to run for the party presidency.

With only 31 divisions yet to nominate candidates by April 2, Razaleigh fell short of winning enough nominations to be on the ballot.

The vote is crucial because UMNO's president traditionally serves as prime minister and the deputy president as deputy prime minister.

Razaleigh still had a mathematical chance of winning enough nominations to run against Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for the deputy presidency, but he would have to win support from all of the remaining divisions.

Foreign investors have been watching to see if Razaleigh, who narrowly lost to Mahathir in the 1987 UMNO leadership polls, could defy party elders and threaten Mahathir, who has been party leader and prime minister for 19 years.

Mahathir and Abdullah have the backing of UMNO's powerful Supreme Council, which in January recommended that the two leaders be nominated without opposition.

RAZALEIGH WARNS PARTY MEMBERS

Razaleigh's challenge against Mahathir was rooted in simmering discontent over the prime minister and his sacking of his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim.

Razaleigh said on Saturday that UMNO could go the way of other formerly dominant parties in the region if it did not take heed.

He cited Taiwan's Nationalist Party, which suffered a humiliating defeat in presidential elections this month, Indonesia's Golkar, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and India's Congress Party -- all of which have lost former pre-eminence.

Anwar was sacked following bitter disagreements with Mahathir over economic policy in the aftermath of Asia's financial crisis in 1997-98.

UMNO has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, and all the country's leaders have also been UMNO presidents.

Mahathir retains considerable control over UMNO's apparatus and its elite, giving him a major advantage in the party polls.-Reuters