Secretary-General of?United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in Malaysia Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor addresses a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 1, 2018. Malaysia's former ruling party United Malays National Organization elected a new leadership on Saturday following the defeat in the general election in May. UMNO announced via Twitter in the evening that former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was elected as the new president, after he secured support from over half of the divisions. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung)

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's former ruling party United Malays National Organization (UMNO) elected a new leadership on Saturday following the defeat in the general election in May.

Around 165,000 UMNO delegates casted their votes in 191 divisions across the country.

UMNO announced via Twitter in the evening that former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was elected as the new president, after he secured support from over half of the divisions.

UMNO has led a multi-party coalition to govern Malaysia for six decades before losing the general election in May. Former Prime Minister Najib Razak resigned as UMNO president following the electoral defeat.

Ahmad Zahid, 65, thwarted the challenges by former UNMO youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and party veteran Tengku Razaleigh Bin Tengku Hamzah in the party election on Saturday.

Mohamad Hasan, a former state chief minister, was elected as deputy president, the No. 2 post.

The new leadership will face a daunting task to revive the party. Its bank account was frozen in part of the corruption investigation into state investment fund 1MDB by the new government.