For Malaysia's Governing Party,' Defining Point' Is Near KUALA LUMPUR - Bathed in a sea of the party's signature red, the headquarters of the United Malays National Organization swarmed with thousands of party faithful last week, eager to hear from their leader as the clock ticked toward Malaysia's next election. UMNO, the largest party in the National Front coalition, which has governed Malaysia for more than half a century, is preparing to contest what many analysts predict is likely to be its toughest election yet. Vowing that the government would fight for every vote, Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia and president of the party, said Thursday that it would be "no ordinary election." "It will be the defining point for the destiny of the people and country," he said during a spirited speech to flag-waving party members at the UMNO General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur. With the wounds inflicted by the opposition during the last elections still fresh in the minds of party members, the next election, which must be held by June, will mark the first time Mr. Najib will seek a mandate from voters. Observers say he will confront an influx of unpredictable young voters and a stronger opposition, setting the stage for a tight race. Mr. Najib, the son of Malaysia's second prime minister, was installed as party leader in 2009, replacing Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after the National Front lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament in 2008 for the first time since independence in 1957. Mr. Najib, 59, has sought to present himself as a reformist, abolishing a number of restrictive laws and implementing a comprehensive program known as 1Malaysia to bolster national unity among the country's ethnic groups. But analysts and critics say that many of the reforms have not gone far enough to improve civil rights and that UMNO has failed to embrace genuine change and become a truly inclusive party that addresses the concerns of all Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity. Formed in 1946 in what was then a British colony, UMNO became known as the organization that helped achieve independence and represented ethnic Malays, the country's dominant ethnic group. In its early political incarnation, it formed an alliance with the parties that became the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress, drawing in the two largest ethnic minorities in the country, with other small parties joining in later years. "When they put together the National Front coalition it was just about impossible to beat them because every major party except the D.A.P. went into the coalition," said Barry Wain, a writer in residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and former journalist, referring to the opposition Democratic Action Party. There wasn't any real, strong opposition for a long time. The National Front has presided over impressive economic development, transforming what was a largely rural agricultural society marked by high levels of poverty in the 1970s into one of Southeast Asia's success stories, with extreme poverty now rare among the country's population of 29 million. But the political landscape has changed markedly. UMNO remains Malaysia's largest political party, with more than three million members, but the opposition has gained strength in recent years, led by Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister under Mahathir Mohamad. Mr. Wain, the author of the book "Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times," believes the party has been in "long-term decline" since the late 1990s. He said that Mr. Mahathir, the former prime minister who led UMNO for 22 years, had a "profound impact" on it because of the length of time he held office and his authoritarian rule. In the party's early days, Mr. Wain said, people joined because they wanted to improve the country. Now it has become a "patronage machine" that dishes out contracts to its followers and lacks long-term ideas about how to improve the country, he said.