Shock turns to confidence for Azmi

INCUMBENT Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) deputy president Nur Azmi Ahmad was caught off guard when he found out that there will be three challengers for his post in the Oct 31 elections when nominations closed on Friday.
Nur Azmi was confident that, with his track record in the MHF, he would retain the post unopposed but in came the nominations for MHF vice-president Datuk Dr S.S. Cheema (two), former deputy president Tunku Majid Sultan Iskandar (two) and former hockey player Abdul Hadi (one).
However, Nur Azmi is ready to face them.
“I felt that I had done enough in the past two years to warrant another term unopposed, and was shocked when three others were also nominated by MHF affiliates,” said Nur Azmi. “I will let my track record speak for me.
“I also feel that the challenge is from outsiders, and Cheema was another surprise.”
Nur Azmi received four nominations, and said his recent networking with affiliates indicated that he is still the preferred choice.
“I have done my homework, and the feedback from affiliates is encouraging. In the last elections, I was in a similar situation (with three challengers) but two pulled out, and I won with a comfortable margin — that’s why I am not overly worried,” said Nur Azmi.
Cheema and Ken Pereira withdrew from the deputy president’s race in 2008, and Nur Azmi went on to beat Tunku Majid by a 12-vote margin. Cheema also had nominations for vice-president which he went on to win.
However, this time, Cheema is going for broke and is very unlikely to withdraw from the race.
Nur Azmi was a two-term vice-president before he threw caution to the wind and challenged Tengku Majid in 2008, and came out smelling like a rose.
The president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has been returned unopposed, while there will be eight candidates for the vice-president’s post.
Incumbents Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh, Datuk Rahim Ariff and M. Gobinathan received eight, nine and six nominations respectively.
The newcomers are Ow Soon Kooi (four), Johari Abdul Aziz (three), Mohinder Singh (one), Manjit Majid Abdullah (four) and Rahim Ahmad (one).