PORT DICKSON: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has denied being at loggerheads with his deputy Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali over the issue of party’s central leadership council appointments.
He said the appointment was to protect the interests of all party members and not just one party.
"We can not appoint only our followers, but instead need to get support from the whole party," he said after attending a program at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT) Springhill here, today.
Earlier, Mohamad Azmin in a statement had urged Anwar to review the appointment of the party's central leadership posts, by taking into account the views of the grassroots.
He claimed that the appointment did not reflect a fair and just representation of the members’ aspirations and would not help propel the party forward.
Anwar said he would not entertain Mohamed Azmin’s request for him to revise the appointments.
"There is no need to do so because all names have been approved.
"I have appointed people from both teams. When we look back (at the list), I have appointed Ali Biju (vice president) and he is one of Azmin's supporters.
"The Information chief (Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin) is also his supporter," he said.
Anwar had on Friday night announced the appointments of new faces to the party’s central leadership council for the 2018-2021 term.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail was retained as PKR’s secretary-general, while Segamat MP Datuk Seri Dr Edmund R. Santhara Kumar has been appointed as his deputy.
Apart from Rafizi, Saifuddin Nasution and Santhara Kumar, Anwar had, among others, also named Tanjung Malim MP Chang Lih Kang as one of the vice-presidents.
However, the most controversial vice-president appointment was that of former Pandan member of parliament Rafizi Ramli.
Rafizi lost the deputy president’s race against Azmin during the recent PKR polls.