ZURAIDA Kamaruddin’s application to join Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) will have to go through the necessary processes before she can be accepted as a member, the party’s secretary-general said today.

Nor Hizwan Ahmad said PBM had received Zuraida’s application to join the party.

“This application will go through the relevant processes, including discussion with the supreme council, and the result will be notified shortly thereafter,” he said in a statement.

The Ampang MP this morning announced that she was leaving Bersatu to join PBM, and was ready to step down as plantation industries and commodities minister.

She added that she would be meeting Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob “soonest to discuss my resignation”, adding that she and PBM would continue to support the government of the day.

Zuraida started her political career with PKR but left the party along with Azmin Ali and nine others during the Sheraton Move which saw the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government in February 2020.

The group had then joined Bersatu in August that year.

Meanwhile, Bersatu supreme council member Eddin Syazlee Shith has been reported as saying that Zuraida’s decision to be join PBM could be due to her desire to be part of a multiracial nationalist party.

He said there had been differences in ideology during Zuraida’s short stint with Malay-based party Bersatu.

He also rubbished suggestions that Zuraida’s departure had to do with a falling out with some of the party’s top leaders.

“It’s not like she was against the president (Muhyiddin Yassin) and the others. She just happened to have her own ideology that we couldn’t accept,” he was quoted as saying in The Vibes.

PBM senior vice-president Steven Choong, meanwhile, was reported as saying that Zuraida will boost the party’s image, particularly considering her role in championing women empowerment.

“I can definitely see more women joining our party because of her,” he said.

Zuraida had been linked with PBM ever since it was formed last November but she had brushed aside all speculations of defecting to the new party previously. – May 26, 2022.