KUALA LUMPUR - A SON of Malaysia's former PM and critic of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has announced his candidacy for a top ruling party post in year-end polls amid threats of an opposition takeover.

Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, son of former premier Mahathir Mohamad, announced his candidacy over the weekend for youth chief of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), which has led the country's ruling coalition since independence.

'If I am given the mandate to lead Umno youth, my goal would be to get the party back on track and push forward to regain the momentum which has been lost by the current leadership in the last 5 years,' Mr Mukhriz told AFP.

Datuk Seri Abdullah's party experienced its worst election results ever in the March 8 polls, losing its two thirds majority in parliament and control of five states.

He has faced increasing calls to step down, with Tun Dr Mahathir leading the charge to remove his hand-picked successor after relations between the two soured in 2006.

The pressure only eased after Abdullah agreed to hand over power to his deputy Najib Razak in 2010, but the premier says he will seek Umno's top post in the December party polls.

Mr Mukhriz questioned the premier's track record after taking over from Dr Mahathir in 2003, accusing him of not developing the country enough amid massive corruption, a poor economy and rising crime.

'Abdullah should not contest as president in the year-end polls,' he said.

'Within three months it will be back to business as usual for Abdullah, but as the March elections have shown, business as usual is not good for our party,' he added. 'We need change we can believe in and it has to be done.'

Resurgent former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, who is back in parliament after a 10-year ban, has vowed to topple the government by September 16.

Datuk Seri Anwar, who heads the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance, needs 30 government lawmakers to defect to his side to form the next government.

A series of cellphone text messages on the defections have spread across the country in recent days, and were taken so seriously that Mr Abdullah was forced to quash the speculation in front page stories in daily newspapers on Saturday. -- AFP

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