She told reporters this at the Parliament lobby when asked about a front page report in theSun daily which said PKR regulations did not allow a person who has been convicted to contest in party elections.

The newspaper, quoting a source, reported that PKR faced the possibility of being deregistered if it allowed Rafizi to contest.

Rafizi is contesting the post of deputy president against incumbent Mohamed Azmin Ali who is also the economic affairs minister.

The source reportedly said Rafizi had two convictions as he was sentenced in 2016 to 18 months in jail for unauthorised possession of the 1MDB audit report and exposing it to the media. He was also sentenced early this year to 30 months in jail for exposing bank accounts related to the National Feedlot Corporation and its chairman Mohamad Salleh Ismail.

The source told the paper that Rafizi claimed to have been given special permission by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to contest in the polls.

Deputy Home Minister Mohd Azis Jamman, when approached by Bernama, said he was awaiting feedback from the RoS on Rafizi’s position before making any comment.

Some 800,000 PKR members will vote in the party election scheduled to run from Sept 14 to Oct 13.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim won the post of president uncontested when the nominations closed on Aug 5.