Mujibu Abd Muis of Universiti Teknologi Mara said the party elections need to be the platform for members to undertake a “total reform” following Umno’s poor performance in the November general election (GE15).

“Give a signal (for reform) by changing the leaders from the top to the division level if they want a makeover.

“If they are daring, choose the one challenging Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (for the president’s post). Failure to revamp itself will result in a much poorer performance in GE16,” Mujibu told FMT.

However, he doubted if the party leaders would open the door for such changes “as they tend to cling to party positions and reject those they deem to be potential contenders”.

Umno won only 26 seats in GE15 when it was defeated in many traditional seats by Perikatan Nasional, its strongest contender for the Malay vote.

Azeem Fazwan Ahmad Farouk of Universiti Sains Malaysia said revamping Umno is not as easy as replacing its leaders.

“Reforming Umno is not as straightforward as one might think,” the director of USM’s Centre for Policy Research and International Studies (Cenpris) said. “Party elections alone will not bring about the desired outcome.”

Azeem said the party structure does not allow for the necessary reforms to materialise.

Umno leaders would fend off any move for a revamp of the party, despite its necessity, as their own positions would be affected, he said.

Following GE15, Zahid had faced calls from several Umno leaders to resign, as well as for the posts of president and deputy president to be contested in the party polls.

He said he would leave it to the party delegates to decide whether to have both positions contested as he is “a democrat”.

Umno will hold its 2022 general assembly from Jan 11 to 14 when only the president’s policy speech will be debated, said party secretary-general Ahmad Maslan.