MIC president Samy Vellu may endorse his choice for the deputy president's post judging from his statement today.

samy vellu pc 120308 defined "I will not endorse any candidate for the moment, but in future, I can't say," he said when asked by reporters if he would endorse his candidate for the number two post in the September party polls.

It was reported that the likely contenders for the post would be the incumbent G Palanivel, MIC secretary-general and Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam, MIC vice-president S Sothinathan and the party’s former number two S Subramaniam who recently announced that he would vie for the post.

Samy Vellu however said he would discuss with the candidates to "come to an understanding" on who should vie for the post.

It is understood that the president would favour a straight fight instead of a four-cornered fight for the post to ensure the party remained intact.

A four-cornered fight would likely break the MIC into factions and lead to its destruction, party insiders said.

"If the talks fail, then I will let them battle it out," said Samy Vellu.

Vell Paari has the right to contest

To a question on whether he would support his son, Vell Paari who is expected to contest for a vice president's post in the party polls, Samy Vellu said: "I cannot comment on it."

s velpaari anak lelaki s samy vellu He said Vell Paari had indicated that he wanted to contest for a post for a long time but he had stopped him for three or four of his terms as party president as he did not want to create a situation where there could be a conflict of interest.

"He (Vell Paari) has his own following and has been working on the ground and it is within his rights if he wants to contest. I can’t deny him the right," he said.

On the situation in Perak, Samy Vellu said since Barisan Nasional’s Zambry Abdul Kadir had obtained the stay of execution from the Court of Appeal today, "we have to wait and see."

"We will have to wait for BN under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to formulate the next step," he added.