SENIOR Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali has denied being behind the formation of a new political party.

The former PKR deputy president said he has no information on the party supposedly being formed by his supporters.

“I know nothing about a new party. Who said there is a new party?” he told reporters after an event at the International Trade and Industry Ministry in Putrajaya today.

The Malaysian Insight had reported last week that plans by Azmin to form his own political party had hit a snag following delays in approval by the authorities.

Sources told The Malaysian Insight that the Registrar of Societies (RoS) was delaying the registration of the party, to be modelled after the multiracial PKR.

They said the delay was also due to Bersatu secretary-general Hamzah Zainuddin, the home minister who oversees the RoS, not wanting to further break his party apart.

“They do not want to lose the numbers in Bersatu. If Azmin forms his own party, what guarantee is there others won’t follow him?” one source said.

The source also said Bersatu president and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was not agreeable to the idea of Azmin forming a new party, which could attract more defections from PKR.

Meanwhile, the RoS said it has yet to receive any application from Azmin to form a new party.

“Based on the records, RoS denies having received any application to form a political party as stated by the sources in the news report.

“The statement from the sources is slanderous and not true at all,” the RoS said in a statement today. – July 8, 2020.