Although Umno members are not openly discussing the choice of deputy president when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi takes over the party, there is constant movement on the ground to secure the position for Najib Razak.

However, the members are aware that the incoming prime minister is not bound to name the party deputy president as his deputy in government.

The Federal Constitution does not stipulate the need for a deputy premier. It is merely a convention adopted by Barisan Nasional component parties that the number two leader in Umno becomes deputy prime minister.

As such, a deputy prime minister has to hold a cabinet post in order to provide him/her with the legal standing in government. Legally, the deputy premier cannot be acting premier either but this is usually ignored.

Given the above convention, there must be an Umno deputy president in order for the incoming prime minister to appoint him as his deputy in government.

Since the party elections will be held only after the general election, scheduled for next year, Abdullah has no candidates for the post at this moment.

'Mr Clean'

Abdullah has the option of leaving the deputy premier post vacant until the next party election or to choose his deputy immediately after replacing Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad next month.

By tradition, an Umno vice-president is appointed as deputy president and subsequently deputy premier. This would then be endorsed by delegates at the annual general meeting.

However, Abdullah's appointment as deputy prime minister transgressed this tradition. He became the number two in the government while holding an Umno vice-president post.

This was due to the sudden sacking of then deputy president and deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Later, the Umno supreme council assigned Abdullah to carry out the duties of deputy president.

Another interesting point is that Mahathir picked Abdullah over Najib as his deputy despite the latter garnering the highest number of votes in the race for vice-presidency in the 1996 party polls.

This was because Abdullah, nicknamed 'Mr Clean', has never been implicated in any scandals or controversies and is highly respected by Umno members.

New team

However, the incoming premier's main concern now is not the choice of deputy but to prepare Umno for the general election.

It would be a major embarrassment should the top guns in the party suffer defeat at the hands of the opposition.

One discomfiting reminder is how close Najib came to being unseated in the Pekan parliamentary constituency in the last elections which he won by a mere 231 vote majority.

Taking into account the commendable performance of the opposition front Barisan Alternatif in the last elections, Abdullah would need to assemble a team that can garner the support of the electorate in the various constituencies.

Since he lacks the luxury of time, he would have to strike a smart cooperation within Umno to consolidate support rather than focusing on his ascendency to the president and prime minister posts.

The new team would be able to ride on the success brought about by the Mahathir administration and at the same time avoid assuming blame for the outgoing premier's shortcomings.

Moreover there are rumours that Abdullah is contemplating several major changes in the party and government which could result in the reversal of numerous decisions made in the past.

It is believed that this has prompted the Umno Supreme Council to recently decide that all its members are collectively responsible for the decisions made by the previous and current leadership.