Newly-minted Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), from the merger of Keadilan and the socialist Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), is gearing to hold its party elections by year-end following formal approval for its formation granted on May 17 by the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

Party deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali said today elections could be held at the end of the year when delegates come together for the national congress which would include members from party branches and divisions.

"Basically we have drawn up a schedule and by August this year we would like to have complete membership integration of the two parties. The pro-tem committees of our divisions will then be formed.

"Between August and December, the pro-tem committees will be meeting with members to form divisional committees. When the divisional committee are formed, the pro-tem committees will be dissolved," Syed Husin told malaysiakini .

However, he pointed the schedule had yet to be approved by the party leadership. "It (the schedule) has only been discussed by the joint political bureau. It will be submitted before June to the party leadership for approval," he said.

Keadilan deputy president Abdul Rahman Othman was reported in the press today as saying that the merger between Keadilan and PRM has been recognised by the government.

Out-of-court settlement

The two were consolidated last August into a single party to be known by the acronym 'Keadilan' despite internal dissension from small pockets of members in both parties which eventually dissipated.

The ROS, however, refused to register the new party contending that since the two parties had merged, it was inappropriate to maintain the word 'Keadilan' as an acronym. The matter was then taken to court by the new party.

"The ROS was slow to act on our amendments to our constitution so we had to take them to court. But in early March, the court allowed us to pursue an out-of-court settlement," said Syed Husin.

"On March 29, the Shah Alam High Court recorded our out-of-court-settlement which included our agreement that we drop the acronym 'Keadilan' from our constitution. The court then requested that the ROS approve the other pending amendments which they did," he said.

He said PKR's leadership was informed of the party's approval just two days ago. "The letter was from the ROS and it was dated May 17. It only got to us a couple of days ago as it went to our lawyers first," said Syed Husin.

To the question on who would be running the party on a day-to-day basis up until elections were held, he replied that the joint political bureau would meet meet every two weeks to administer the new party.