KUALA LUMPUR: Umno deputy presidential hopeful Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib yesterday revealed that dirty tricks had been used to deprive him of nominations for the post.

He said he had been victimised by certain quarters who had used threats in the process of nominating leaders for top posts at the divisional level.

"There were some places where they were threatened. After they had nominated one person and that was seconded, nominations was closed right away," he said.

He added that there were also incidents where delegates were threatened.

"Based on the response from the grassroots, they want to give an opportunity to all nominees to contest the party election.
"So, don't use tactics like this. It is not fair to those who have been nominated," he said in Parliament yesterday.

He added that there was also rumours of him pulling out of the race.

"This will make divisions who want to nominate me think twice before they do," he said.

He was confident of securing the minimum 39 nominations required to qualify to contest by the weekend.

The other two going for the deputy's post are Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.

Earlier in Putrajaya, Muhammad said the party would be stronger if its membership included not just businessmen but also journalists, teachers, religious figures and leaders of non-governmental organisations.

He said these were the group of people who were in Umno when it was formed on May 11, 1946.

Immediate efforts, therefore, must be taken to attract former teachers, imam, community leaders, writers, smallholders, former civil servants, fishermen and sportsmen into its fold.

If no effort was made to attract these people into Umno, the party would be seen as practising selective membership, Muhammad said in a statement.



Umno, he said, could not afford be selective about its members as this would only result in less interest in Umno and more Malays being attracted to join the opposition.