Malaysia's Indian party likely to hold poll this year

Malaysia's largest ethnic Indian political party, the Malaysian Indian Congress, is expected to hold organisational elections this year after it were postponed for a year due to the May 5 general elections.
The Central Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body, would set the dates for the polls in the various branches, said party vice-president M. Saravanan.
"We will start with branch and divisional elections before the presidential election, all of which have to be completed by this year," he said.
The deputy president, three vice-presidents and 23 seats in the CWC would be elected by 1,500 delegates who attend the party's annual general assembly, said Saravanan.

The party held elections in 2009, with the presidential polls in March that year and the election for national posts six months later.
Each term is for three years.

In the last presidential election, then president S. Samy Vellu had retained the presidency for a record 11th consecutive term. He stepped down in December 2010, after 31 years, paving the way for his deputy G. Palanivel to become the acting president.
Under the party constitution, to be eligible to contest, a presidential aspirant needs to obtain 50 nominations, with each nomination needing one proposer and five seconders.
All proposers and seconders must be branch chairmen.

In the event of a contest, the MIC president would be picked by about 4,000 branch chairmen nationwide.
MIC is a major component of the ruling coalition of Barisan National led by premier Najib Razak.