He also denied allegations that the squabble began when he sent a different list of PKR election candidates to the party’s de facto leader, Anwar Ibrahim, as suggested by political analyst Kamarul Zaman Yusoff.
Saifuddin said all matters related to candidates came under the purview of the party’s election committee, led by vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar.
“All senior leaders are involved in the shortlisting of candidates that have been recommended by the branches and state leadership. This has been going on for more than a year now.
“The candidate list is being finalised and will be announced any time now.
“It is impossible and nonsensical to say that I alone brought the list to Anwar and influenced him to finalise the candidates,” Saifuddin told FMT when contacted.
Kamarul said he had learnt that Saifuddin had taken his own list of candidates to Anwar for the PKR leader’s endorsement.
The list allegedly differed from the one earlier agreed on by the party leadership, with Kamarul saying Saifuddin had his own agenda.
This came amid reports indicating a power struggle within PKR, between the camp led by deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali and the group led by vice-president Rafizi Ramli, who is said to be aligned with party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Saifuddin said Kamarul was “shooting blanks” and advised him to focus on his lecturing job.
He said the academic’s words were loud but hollow, and had no effect.
“He has yet to recover from being embarrassed by Dr Mahathir Mohamad the other day,” he said, referring to a recent forum at which the Pakatan Harapan chairman had made a surprise appearance.
Kamarul was a panellist at the dialogue which had questioned Mahathir’s ability to be prime minister again at the age of 92.
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