PM Abdullah Badawi is set to announce that he will step down on June 2010, said pro-Abdullah website The Malaysian Insider.

And Malaysiakini said he would also announce, in his meeting today with Umno leaders at PWTC, that there should not be any contest for the No2 post either, ie Deputy PM Najib Razak's current position.

Abdullah feels secure after getting promises from the heads of Perlis, Penang, Selangor and Malacca Umno that all divisions in these four states would propose him as Umno president and Najib as deputy for the December internal party polls.

Will he be a lame duck prime minister, counting the days to his end and hoping his legacy will improve.
And will Najib accept this? Because he now have to demurely accept playing second fiddle for two more years, or announce a break away now.

Will Muhyiddin Yassin and Tengku Razaleigh accept this?

And more interestingly, will Umno's 180,000 plus branches and 191 divisions accept this Word From Above at a time when the party and the country is in turmoil....

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UPDATE - HOT HOT HOT!

PM Abdullah confirms he will hand over by mid-2010 - a very long two-year wait for Deputy PM Najib.
And if you want to see conspiracy in this, here it is - Abdullah said the No.2 post IS open for contest.
In other words, if International Trade Minister and Johor strongman Muhyiddin Yassin wants to challenge Najib for the No.2 post, he could.
And the talk is, he would!

And if Najib were to lose, he would become a nobody in the party, post-less.
Or if Muhyiddin were to lose, he would become post-less in Umno.
And Abdullah will still walk tall. Ouch to the Abdullah-haters.

So PM Abdullah, with no legacy to speak of so far, have managed to at least secure his Premiership for a total of six years and nine months (he took over from Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Oct 31, 2003, and will step down in June 2010).

The signal that could be spun in the next few weeks is that Abdullah doesn't really care if Najib becomes PM or not, by allowing the No.2 post open for contest.

Tengku Razaleigh, who has been itching for a fight for the No.1 post, has shouted it is unconstitutional to pass the leadership baton like that.
Well then, he should get 58 nominations and fight Abdullah.

Two years is a long time to wait, DPM Najib's people would tell him.
So how?

The word is, is Najib were to break away from Abdullah and to challenge him, by having Muhyiddin as No.2, some 100 of the 191 Umno divisions would agree with that.
That is, Abdullah could well be left out in the cold, and might have to team up with Muhammad Muhammad Taib, for example.

As things stand: Abdullah 1, Najib 0.
And it's just 3 minutes into the game.....

Read more from blog source: OpEd