Newly elected Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today that he will be calling for a meeting with PAS ahead of the July 16 Parliament sitting to decide on the candidate for opposition leader.

He also told a press conference at the Umno headquarters today that speculation of former Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin being appointed to the position was not discussed during the meeting earlier this morning.

"By virtue, any opposition leader normally has to be appointed from those who are elected as party president.

"In this case, I think I would like to discuss with PAS first to decide on the matter. We will have a pre-council first before July 16," said Zahid who was accompanied by new Umno deputy president Mohamad Hassan, secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, vice-presidents Ismail Sabri and Mahdzir Khalid, as well as Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.

The third vice-president's post was won by former Johor menteri besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

Future roles for KJ?

Commenting further, Zahid said that his discussion with Khairy this morning had touched on possible future roles to be played by the Rembau MP.

"I had a discussion with KJ this morning and I shared details about the role that he would play in our mainstream organisation," he said without disclosing further details.

Khairy, however, revealed that he had rejected Zahid's offer to take up the position of BN's secretary-general which is currently held by Tengku Adnan.

"Thank you DS @Zahid_Hamidi for offering me the post of BN secretary-general. I told him that I don't want to hold any top party positions.

"I would like to focus on my duties as an MP. Always ready to assist and will remain with Umno," he tweeted.

In his first press conference after being elected Umno president, Zahid said the new party leadership will also meet to discuss how it could best implement all the pledges that he made, as well as those by Khairy and the other presidential contender, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

In total, Zahid said he had personally made 15 pledges to Umno members, while Khairy and Tengku Razaleigh had in total made another 15.

Meanwhile, Khaled said matters concerning the transformation of the party will be brought to the supreme council.

"Zahid had said that he will collect every proposal on the subject matter.

"Once everything has been gathered, it will be discussed and evaluated," he said, adding that time was needed.