KUALA LUMPUR - Umno president Zahid Hamidi on Friday took aim at his party rivals while indicating that he was open to facing a challenge at this year’s party polls, even as the party’s general assembly began discussing a motion to prevent contests for the top two posts.

Without mentioning names, Zahid – who is also Deputy Prime Minister – ostensibly took aim at former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin and former defence minister Hishamuddin Hussein while addressing more than 5,000 party delegates at the annual assembly.

Mr Khairy and Datuk Seri Hishamuddin belong to a camp within the deeply divided party that is expected to mount a leadership challenge against Zahid during the party elections due by May 19. Both of them have expressed interest in contesting the polls, while not explicitly announcing their intentions to challenge Zahid.

In his speech on Friday, Zahid called out a “tortoise” that is only beginning to emerge from its shell – in a swipe seemingly directed at Mr Khairy over his perceived lack of activity within party circles after he lost his 2018 party presidency bid to Zahid.

The Umno chief also referred to a group of 10 lawmakers from Umno-led Barisan Nasional who had backed rival Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief Muhyiddin Yassin to become premier after the November general election resulted in a hung Parliament – without gaining the party’s collective consent to do so.

“It is disheartening that this was all arranged by someone from our own party,” Zahid said, in indirect reference to Mr Hishamuddin’s role as the key mover in the plan.

Zahid said he had “forgiven but not forgotten” the actions of the 10 MPs, and also warned that action might still be taken against them if the disciplinary board of the party gets the mandate to take action from delegates at the four-day assembly which ends on Saturday.

Zahid had already sacked or suspended at least three key leaders from the camp opposed to him before and after the general election for not toeing party lines.

Former premier Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who is Umno vice-president, is also seen as aligned to the camp. On Friday, Zahid said that the party “had paid a heavy price” for its role in helping to install Datuk Seri Ismail as premier in 2021, after his predecessor Mr Muhyiddin lost the parliamentary majority, but he did not go into details.

Zahid also indicated that he is open to facing a contest for the party president’s post, but said he would respect the Umno delegates’ deliberation on the matter.

Mr Khairy lost his contest for the Sungai Buloh ward in GE15 and currently holds no party positions. Mr Hishamuddin, who is the cousin of former premier Najib Razak, is MP for Sembrong in Johor but also does not hold any top positions in the party.

Mr Hishamuddin said on Friday that he is considering a bid for the top posts should the assembly resolve to allow contests for the positions of party president and deputy president.

Even though Umno’s top leadership did not propose a no-contest motion, Rembau division delegate Mohd Shukri Samsudin put forth such a motion as he began debates on Zahid’s policy speech on Friday afternoon.

Umno information chief Isham Jalil told reporters that the motion has so far been supported by delegates from Terengganu, Penang and Selangor states, along with the women’s wing.

The delegates will vote on the private motion before the assembly ends on Saturday evening.

Following the general election, Umno was in limbo for days while trying to decide whether to back Mr Muhyiddin or Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to become premier as no party had a simple majority in Parliament.

At Zahid’s nudging, the party eventually decided to back Mr Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, despite having spent years demonising him and PH component Democratic Action Party as their chief political enemies.

Mr Hishamuddin and several leaders from his camp are seen to be friendlier to Mr Muhyiddin’s PN, having teamed up with them to form a government between 2020 and 2022.

On Friday, Zahid took aim at PN for trying to engineer “secret deals” with Umno leaders, and said that PN could soon have a “court cluster” of its own.

The Umno camp led by Zahid is often referred to as the “court cluster” by critics as many of its leaders have been slapped with criminal charges after BN lost the 2018 elections. Zahid himself faces 47 graft charges.

Last week, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission arrested a PN politician with links to Mr Muhyiddin for alleged graft related to RM92.5 billion (S$28.2 billion) of public funds, and Zahid theorised that this “could only be the beginning”.