Then came Mahathir's speech ahead of polling for the three vice-presidents and 25 Supreme Council members.
UMNO's top decision-making body, the Supreme Council, that it needed to tackle the leadership issue quickly.
"There was no conspiracy, " says Ibrahim Ali, a member of the party's Supreme Council.
Barisan was due to hold a Supreme Council meeting on June 24, fueling rumors that elections were imminent.
Those rulers, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, have been in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster.
Iraq's Shiite-led ruling coalition is dominated by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
The alliance includes al-Maliki's Dawa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has insisted that it will hand over power to an elected civilian government.
Barisan is expected to convene its supreme council on June 24, a sign that elections could be round the corner.
Since then, however, the generals' Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has made a hash of just about everything.
Mr Maliki and Mr Erdogan signed a detailed agreement setting up a "supreme council for strategic co-operation" between the two countries.
"Those involved in (the) Abbasiya clashes and inciting them will be dealt with according to the law, " the Supreme Council said.
Some members of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces may also back him "because he might maintain the status quo, " Ashour said.
Since Mubarak was thrown from office, Egypt has been ruled by a military junta dubbed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
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Mamdouh Shahin, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
On Thursday, more than 100 Ethiopian archbishops, priests, nuns and members of the Islamic Supreme Council turned out to welcome the Eritrean delegation.
BBC: Leaders at prayer in Asmara (pic: Jorge Aramburu/UNMEE)
One of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' first announcements was that it would honour Egypt's international obligations, presumably including Camp David.
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Some participants in the Tahrir Square rally felt their celebrations were overshadowed by the interim constitutional declaration made by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
In its statement, read on state TV by a military official, the Supreme Council said the judiciary is a pillar of Egyptian society.
UMNO's Supreme Council has agreed that there will be no contest for the two top positions when they come up for election in May.
An UMNO supreme council member says party members worry that Abdullah cannot be all that, especially when it comes to facing the resurgent opposition.
Field-Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has continued to pull the strings in Egypt, was named defence minister.
He is on UMNO's Supreme Council, but as an appointed member.
The Supreme Council asserted legislative authority in June, after Egypt's Constitutional Court ruled that a third of lawmakers had been illegally elected and invalidated the election.
Since he became head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2002, Mr Hawass claims to have returned 5, 000 artefacts to Egypt which he says were stolen.
Egypt's military leadership, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said 35 assailants -- terrorist factions from Gaza -- were involved in Sunday's attack near the Rafah border crossing.
Now, though, that contention is probably lost because the main defender of the Egyptian case, the general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, was fired over corruption allegations.
El-Shater himself is awaiting a court decision regarding his eligibility to run after a pardon granted by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was challenged in court.
The military leadership, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, also announced it would name a 100-strong panel by Friday that will draw up a new constitution for the country.
The ruling military - the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) - headed by Field Marshal Tantawi, has been under pressure to bring forward the election date to May.
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