UMNO delegates had voted unanimously on Friday for Mr Najib and Mr Zahid’s posts as UMNO president and deputy president respectively to go uncontested in the next party polls.

Political analysts in general felt that Mr Najib has achieved his objective in the recently concluded annual general meeting, which is to unite the party to face the coming general election, GE14, that must be held by June next year.

Senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Yang Razali Kassim said: “UMNO and BN will have a tough time winning back two-thirds majority. From what we heard at the assembly, the narrative of winning back two-thirds majority is a posturing to lift the confidence of the party’s rank and file. Don’t forget the party has just gone through quite a split. Internally, morale may have declined and Najib had to shore it up before the so-called father of all elections.”