Former Umno leader Shahril Hamdan has raised the possibility of a fresh contest for the PKR deputy presidency between the incumbent, Rafizi Ramli, and former party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
Shahril questioned whether Saifuddin would challenge his Cabinet colleague for the post at PKR‘s upcoming central leadership elections, especially after several bigwigs linked to Rafizi were defeated in the divisional polls last month.
“Many of those figures who suffered major defeats at the divisional level are somewhat aligned with Rafizi,” he said in the latest episode of Keluar Sekejap, which he co-hosts with Khairy Jamaluddin.
Shahril wondered whether this trend would continue in PKR’s central leadership council elections.
He acknowledged that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim previous indicated the top two party positions would not be contested this time around.
However, he pointed out that Saifuddin said last week he had yet to decide whether to challenge Rafizi for the deputy president’s post.
“I’m waiting to see if Saifuddin will go against Rafizi. Last week, he said he hadn’t made a decision yet. Usually, when someone says that, it means they will contest.
“Maybe seeing the outcome at the divisional level, he might just go for it. If that happens, this PKR election will be a very interesting one,” said Shahril.
PKR’s divisional elections saw several big names losing, including party vice-presidents Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and K Saraswathy, deputy ministers Akmal Nasir and Adam Adli, as well as several other MPs and assemblymen.
Some of these major figures were said to be allies of Rafizi, the economy minister, who has gone on leave “for a few days”. This followed a Malaysiakini report quoting a minister as denying Rafizi had quit his ministerial post.
Rafizi and Saifuddin contested for the PKR deputy president’s post in 2022. Rafizi won with a landslide 16,668-vote majority.
In September last year, Saifuddin relinquished his post as party secretary-general – a role he was first appointed to in 2010 before being reappointed in 2022 – to former Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh.
He remains the Pakatan Harapan secretary-general and home minister.
