AFTER weeks of speculation, Anwar Ibrahim has announced that he will contest the PKR presidency in the upcoming party polls.

Anwar, dubbed the prime minister-in-waiting, said he humbly offers himself for the post after discussing the idea with current president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

“After a discussion with Dr Wan Azizah, the deputy president and other leaders, and after considering many views and needs, for the sake of PKR, and being aware of the principle of consensus, I offer myself to contest the post of PKR president,” he said on Facebook today.

“God willing, if I get the mandate from the grassroots, I will lead the party as president after the party’s national congress in November.”

The former deputy prime minister was released from prison in May, following Pakatan Harapan’s victory in the 14th general election.

PKR is part of the four-party PH. The coalition has announced that Anwar will take over from Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister within the next two years.

Several PKR leaders, including Youth deputy chief Dr Afif Bahardin and Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, have urged Anwar to contest the post in preparation for his return to Parliament, and subsequently becoming the nation’s eighth prime minister.

Dr Wan Azizah previously said she would make way for her husband if he contested the post.

Anwar said he had been asked to lead PKR as president since 2007, but he decided not to do so, to prevent the party from being slapped with Registrar of Societies restrictions.

He is in Istanbul, recovering from a spinal operation. He was flown to Turkey from Indonesia to undergo the procedure to fix a prolapsed disc.

Some 800,000 PKR members will choose their leaders via the electronic voting system in the party polls, to be held in November. – July 15, 2018.