This, he said, was in spite of the Pakatan Harapan presidential council’s decision on Monday night that it will not work with PAS in the 14th General Election (GE14).
“I am happy to hear of the PH presidential council’s decision.
“However, my decision to resign is firm and final,” the Selayang MP told FMT today.
Leong quit the political bureau, the highest decision-making body in the party, on Monday after disagreeing with his party’s move to continue holding talks with PAS to ensure one-to-one contests in GE14.
Leong also said he would not change his mind about not contesting in the coming polls.
However, he would remain a PKR member as well as Selayang MP.
The PH presidential council announced that the opposition coalition would prepare a strategy to manage the expected three-cornered contests in GE14.
The meeting followed reports that some PKR leaders were involved in negotiations with PAS on the allocation of seats in Selangor in GE14.
On Saturday, Mohamed Azmin Ali, who is PKR deputy president, said his talks with PAS leaders were not held in his personal capacity but based on a party decision.
However, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution later denied there was such a decision made at the party level.
Azmin said negotiations were “solely to prevent three-cornered contests” in Selangor and to “increase the chances of winnability for PKR and opposition parties”.
In a statement, party vice-president Rafizi Ramli said since 2015, the party leadership had been split over the issue of ties with PAS.
Rafizi had named Azmin, Tian Chua, Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin, Xavier Jeyakumar, Dr Shaharuddin Badaruddin, Zuraida Kamaruddin, R Sivarasa, Saifuddin Abdullah, Kamaruddin Jaafar and Fahmi Fadzil as among those who favoured talks with PAS.
On the other hand, the Pandan MP said besides Leong, Saifuddin Nasution, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Tan Yew Kew, Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, Johari Abdul, Sim Tze Tzin and Fariz Musa were opposed to the idea of working with PAS.
Rafizi proposed that a special PKR congress be held to put the matter to rest and to stop the confusion among grassroots members.