Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today spoke highly of this year's UMNO elections for what he described as greater democracy in the party and took a dig at the opposition DAP which had to hold elections again over irregularities.

The deputy prime minister said UMNO was bold enough to hand over to hundreds of thousands of its members at the divisional level the mandate to elect the party's top leadership.

The Umno elections blazed the trail for renewal in appreciation of the need to embrace change and greater democracy in the party's own mould, he said in his speech opening the delegates' meetings of the Pagoh Wanita Umno, Umno Youth and Puteri UMNO.

The text of his speech was read out at the three meetings by the respective divisional heads of the three wings.

In this year's elections, UMNO adopted the electoral college system whereby close to 150,000 members are given the opportunity to elect the party's top leaders instead of confining that privilege to a few thousand as in the past.

"Realising this, we have to focus on drawing the support of the young people for our struggle. We have to convince them that Umno's struggle is for their benefit.

"I am convinced that with such support, Umno will become stronger in the future," he said.

Muhyiddin said efforts to strengthen Umno were a major challenge for the party because disunity would result in the party losing the trust and support of the Malays.

He said Umno had to be strong as it was the only party of the Malays which championed Islam, empowered Bahasa Melayu, defended the institution of the royalty and upheld the dignity of the community.

Most importantly, he said, Umno never felt apologetic about championing the Malays and bumiputeras because that was the platform that the party believed in according to the principles of justice and equality.