He said the BN flags at the centre had been taken down. “This is the first time in history it has happened. This is the saddest night.”

The Arau constituency has been held by BN for 10 terms since 1974, except for a two-year spell when a PAS candidate won in a by-election. Shahidan has served four terms, from 1986 to 1995, and 2013 to 2022.

Shahidan’s posting came hours after Ketereh division chief Annuar Musa shared a report claiming that Umno leaders aligned to vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob would not be featured in the general election.

Other leaders rumoured to be dropped are Halimah Sadique, Adham Baba, Zahidi Zainul Abidin and Salim Shariff.

Annuar said that the candidate list was determined by Umno’s top five leaders (the president, his deputy and three vice presidents).

However, there was talk that many winnable candidates had been cut off, especially those who were aligned to Ismail, who had formed a coalition government in August last year with support from Perikatan Nasional and other parties.

Annuar said such talk was “just rumours, which is not necessarily baseless. But please stop speculating, just wait for the official announcement in a day or two.”

On Saturday, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had warned “big headed” leaders in the party to realise that all they were and all they had was because of Umno.