(Updated 2:40pm, 28 March 2009)
KUALA LUMPUR, 28 March 2009: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today announced that he will seek an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin on 2 April to convey his intention of relinquishing his post as prime minister.
Abdullah said the official date for the handing over of power to Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be fixed once the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had given his consent.
“After I obtain His Majesty’s consent, the date for the official handing over of power would be set,” he said in his winding-up speech, his final as the Umno president, at the Umno General Assembly here today.
“I am hereby handing over the Umno leadership to the new president Datuk Seri Najib and may Umno is blessed under his leadership,” he said.
Najib, 55, who won the Umno presidency unopposed, took over the post from Abdullah, who held the presidency since October 2004. — Bernama