In Kuala Lumpur

FOR a good hour today around lunch time, 50 energetic young men jostled and cheered outside the Tun Hussein Onn hall at the party's headquarters at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).

Divided into two camps, each was trying to drown out the war cry of the other.

One side was cheering for former Selangor chief minister Khir Toyo. Another chanted and sang songs for outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin.

Both men are fighting for the Umno Youth chief post. Neither side waned even after 60 minutes of shouting themselves hoarse.

Yes, the Umno general assembly may have started yesterday, but today, with the commencement of the party polls, the noise and colour have arrived with a bang.

In the PWTC building, the cheering masses washed the hall in a sea of red and white, the colours of Umno. It is broken up only by a dash of pink, provided by the young women of Puteri Umno, the young women's wings.

It is one of three Umno wings holding elections today; the other two being Umno Youth and the women's wing Wanita.

This year's Umno elections are more heated than previously, with more candidates and more posts contested than usual.

And at this final stretch, after their chosen candidates had spent a good part of the last few months on their protracted campaigns, it was now the grassroots' turn in the spotlight.

When the all-important delegates - who will choose the next leaders of the party - arrived early in the morning, hundreds of supporters were already lying in wait.

Even before 8am, many of them have lined up by the escalators, furiously shoving name cards of their candidates into the hands of the delegates, who have come from all over the country.

Each card has a smiling picture of the man or woman they were cheering for, along with the candidate's assigned number printed in bold for good measure.

Others choose somewhat more unconventional methods: The supporters of Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who is running for a vice-president post, walked around with a somewhat creepy cardboard cut-out mask of the minister, slightly frightening anyone who ran into them with their hollowed-out eyes.

But ultimately it is a numbers game - literally. Each candidate is assigned a serial number, and they must place a lot of importance on it, because the numbers are found everywhere.

It is printed neatly on T-shirts (Khir's boys all have "02" emblazoned on the back of theirs, while Khairy's have "03" on theirs). The numbers are also on large foam hands, on laminated signs that supporters hang around their necks, and the shiny round badges that many of them have pinned on their bags and clothes.

Even the cheers revolve around the numbers. Sometimes all you could hear were numbers: You could catch people chanting "kosong sembilan" (Malay for "zero-nine") without making out who they were actually shouting for.

Their point, we presume is, if for some reason the names are too hard to pick out from the list, at least remember which number to put the big "X" next to.

For some candidates though, nothing replaces their personal touch, even at this 11th hour. As delegates got ready to vote, Dr Khir could still be seen drifting among them, busily shaking hands with everyone before they entered the hall to cast their vote.

He will be hoping that tonight he will be No.1, not No.2.

Read the breaking news story here.