KUALA LUMPUR: Wanita Umno head Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz's face-to-face meeting with her deputy-turn-challenger Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil will perhaps be the "highlight" of the Wanita Barisan Nasional meeting today.

This would be the first meeting between the two since Shahrizat declared on Nov 15 her intention to challenge Rafidah in Umno polls next March.

Shahrizat's decision is not in line with that of Wanita Umno's executive council meeting on Nov 10, which agreed that there should not be any contest for the movement's head and deputy posts.

A source said that although today's meeting is expected to discuss methods to strengthen Wanita BN, it would be interesting to see how Rafidah and Shahrizat interact in public, and how they differentiate professionalism from personal feelings.

"After all, since Shahrizat's announcement, it's well known that there is no lost love between them."
Rafidah is chairman of Wanita BN while Shahrizat is her deputy. The Wanita heads of other BN component parties are the vice-heads of Wanita BN.

Rafidah had previously said that she wanted to use the period between December and June next year to strengthen Wanita BN and to prepare the mechanism for the 13th general election, scheduled for 2013.

The Umno supreme council is also meeting tonight, and is expected to discuss two major issues -- preparations for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election and reports on the recently concluded Umno divisional meetings.

The by-election will be held following the death of its member of parliament Datuk Razali Ismail, who was deputy education minister, while playing badminton in Genting Highlands last Friday.

The Election Commission is expected to meet soon to fix the dates for nomination and polling in the event of a contest.

A supreme council member said Umno had to step up efforts to retain the seat, which Razali won by a slim majority of 628 votes in March in a three-cornered fight. He beat Pas candidate Mohamad Sabu and independent candidate, 83-year-old Maimun Yusof.

Sources said the supreme council is also expected to deliberate on the March party elections, and on the issuing of confirmation letters to candidates who had surpassed the minimum nominations required to contest for party posts.

A time frame is expected to be fixed for the candidates to respond to these offer letters, indicating whether or not they were interested to contest.

The divisional elections carried out during divisional meetings that were concluded on Nov 9, with the exception of five divisions, would also be discussed by the supreme council, including the untoward incidents at the Seremban and Tanah Merah division meetings.

The Seremban Umno divisional meeting on Nov 9 was called off after two delegates, including a woman, were injured when they were hit by chairs during a scuffle.

The Tanah Merah meeting was called off following a court injunction obtained by committee member Ab Rahman Ibrahim against 32 others in the division,

The meetings of three other divisions -- Larut, Tenom and Pengkalan Chepa -- were postponed.

Also expected to be on the agenda today are issues relating to the investigations carried out by the party's disciplinary board into reported cases of money politics.

Party president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had last week expressed his hope that the disciplinary board would conclude its investigations before the polls next year. -- By Sajahan Abdul Waheed