KUALA LUMPUR: Experts believe that Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's acquittal over his corruption charges has placed him in a stronger position within Umno.

They believe that although it is a partial victory, given that he has another corruption case pending, the favourable judgment would provide him with the ammo to pressure Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to call for the 15th General Election (GE15) soon.

Professor James Chin, a political analyst from the University of Tasmania's Asia Institute, said the decision has solidified the Bagan Datuk member of parliament's position within Umno.

"Zahid is now in a stronger political position. Since the hearing of the trial began, Zahid has maintained that the case was politically-motivated and he will continue to sing this tune. 

"Although this comes as a partial victory for Zahid since has other ongoing court cases, this verdict will at least put additional pressure on Ismail Sabri to call for an early polls," he said.

Chin, however, maintained that the verdict will do little to change Umno's GE15 political calculations.

"Since last year until now, all the political indicators remained the same, in which I believe that GE15 would still be called by the end of this year.

"The verdict and will not sway the votes from the people in favour of Umno.

"This will only affect the internal party dynamics. With that said, nothing will change and the party is still split with two factions," he said.

Another political analyst, Dr Ainul Adzellie Hasnul, concurred, saying that the verdict has provided a morale boost for Zahid as well as Umno.

"Grassroots support towards Zahid is still strong because the party's principle is to be loyal to the president, as in the concept of institutional presidency

"Now, Zahid can focus all of his efforts on leading the party for GE15," he said.

Senior fellow at Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research, Dr Azmi Hassan, said verdict has put Zahid's critics, especially the Opposition, in a difficult position as they had previously disparaged the Barisan Nasional chairman with the "court cluster" moniker.

"This has made it more difficult for the Opposition to capitalise on the 'court cluster' term as a means of raising support form voters.

"More importantly, the judge had stated that there was no prima facie case as the prosecution had failed to providing (substantial) evidence," he said.

The judgment, said Azmi, also provides Zahid with a "free hand" to "force" or advise the prime minister on when to dissolve Parliament, subsequently paving the way for GE15.

"Previously, critics of Zahid and Umno had insinuated that the party president wanted GE15 to be held soon with the hopes of saving him from the court cases.

"This, however, has changed although Zahid has other ongoing court cases.

"Zahid's hands are no longer tied, whereby the opposition can not longer accuse the party president of having a hidden agenda of trying to save himself with his repeated calls for early polls, " he said.