Members of the newly minted Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) can now look forward to party elections after president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail announced that contests will begin next month.

According to her, branch-level elections would be held from August 1-9 followed by meetings of the respective divisions from September 15 for a month.

Wan Azizah was also quoted by Bernama as saying today that the exercise was to enable members from the now defunct Parti Rakyat Malaysia to participate in the elections.

New leaders

Last month PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali told malaysiakini that the party will hold its national congress by the end of the year. Members will be allowed to elect new party leaders at the congress if they so wish, he said.

The party has had a rocky ride since the its consolidation last August with internal dissension to the merger. It also faced a major external obstacle when the government refused to recognise the party, as party stalwarts wanted to maintain 'Keadilan' as an acronym.

The matter was only resolved after a court case and the party was finally recognised by the Registrar of Societies on May 17, nearly two months after the country's 21st general election.