PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said cracks in the party due to the sex scandal implicating his deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali will not derail his chances of becoming the eight Malaysian prime minister.

Admitting that there are talks of the party becoming divided due to the scandal, Anwar stressed that all party decisions were made in consensus.

“There are talks that there are cracks due to the (sex scandal) issue. But we will leave it to the party disciplinary board to decide on some of the issues and inform all of those in the political bureau present, except the deputy president.

“The decision was done in consensus and has been agreed. The same goes with my meetings with the leaders from Sabah and Sarawak.

“They (the leaders) wanted explanation but agreed with the party decision that we are against this disgusting culture in our politics and are leaving the investigation to the authorities, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and other agencies involved,” he said.

Anwar was named as the incoming prime minister following Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s promise to give way for the PKR president to take over after two years.

He added that the political bureau also listened to the views of party vice-president Zuraida Kamarudin, who had earlier demanded the party to sack Santubong Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz over his open confession to being one of the parties in the sex video.

“Zuraida was present in the meeting today. The Youth and Wanita chiefs are also present. All of them gave their views but the decision was made in consensus and based on the recommendation of the disciplinary board,” he said.

Earlier, PKR’s disciplinary board had given Haziq a 14-day show cause letter to explain his open confession that has tarnished the party’s image.

Disciplinary board chairman Ahmad Kasim said the decision was among the four measures decided during the bureau meeting last Sunday before they were presented to the PKR political bureau earlier this evening.

The disciplinary board also took note of Azmin’s denial and will look into his explanation in the future. – June 19, 2019.