They said natural resources and environmental sustainability minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad can protect his political image if he manages to defend his post as PKR vice-president, which he first won in the 2022 PKR polls.

The same goes for the likes of deputy ministers Adam Adli and Akmal Nasir, who are both eyeing a spot on PKR’s 20-member central leadership council.

Akademi Nusantara’s Azmi Hassan said PKR members may have different preferences in terms of leaders at the divisional and central levels. “I don’t see their defeats as obstructing them from continuing to challenge for a central PKR post,” he told FMT.

Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said these prominent leaders still had time to overturn their divisional losses to convince members to give them their backing in the central leadership election.

He added that the track record of these leaders, having attained seniority in PKR, would give them some form of boost as they campaign for next month’s party elections.

“Let’s wait for the central leadership council elections, to see if these leaders who lost at the division will be retained in their central posts,” he said.

A slew of prominent incumbent divisional leaders were knocked out over the past two weekends as members elected lesser-known figures in the party’s divisional polls.

PKR vice-president and deputy minister K Saraswathy, Penang executive councillor Fahmi Zainol, Segamat MP R Yuneswaran, and Tebrau MP Jimmy Puah were among other leaders who faltered in the division elections.