PKR election committee chairperson Rashid Din has urged all candidates for the party polls to campaign more on their personal merits rather than relying on support from their "factions" within the party.

"We recognise there are factions. Any community would have factions.

"What I'm going to say is, let's tone it down. Let's tone the factions down," Rashid (photo) told a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya.

"We want to choose the best leaders."

Although Anwar Ibrahim won the PKR president post uncontested last Sunday, the two candidates vying for deputy – incumbent Mohamed Azmin Ali and challenger Rafizi Ramli – have each formed their own teams.

These teams will contest for the four vice-presidents posts up for grabs, all the way down to posts in the party’s wings.

Rashid further likened the PKR polls to a friendly football match between several teams and urged all members to campaign accordingly.

"We can't say that they are going against any (party) rules.

"We are having a friendly match, so don't kick your opponent's foot until it breaks," he said in response to a question on whether candidates found to engage in campaigns that promotes their alignment to certain top leaders would be going against any party rules.

Earlier, Rashid expressed hope that the poll’s outcome would not affect party unity.

"I hope the winners will be with Keadilan and the losers will also still be with Keadilan," he added.

For candidates who are also holding positions in the government, Rashid cautioned that they should not abuse government machineries for their personal campaigns.

Read more: PKR polls: How the country's most complex party election works

Committee secretary Ismail Yusof, meanwhile, pointed out that the party polls was an opportunity to highlight its talents across all levels of leadership.

"We have a lot of talents in the party and we would like to celebrate them," he said.

Aside from the two factions aligned to Azmin and Rafizi, a group of PKR leaders had also came out to declare that they would be contesting on "neutral" grounds.

'Wan Azizah to remain as president until November'

At the press conference, Rashid also said that PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, along with all incumbent office bearers, will only officially hand over their positions to the new winners during the party's National Congress expected to take place on Nov 16.

Wan Azizah, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, has led PKR since it was founded on April 4, 1999, following the 1998 Reformasi movement to demand for justice for Anwar.

She did not defend her position in the current party polls to make way for Anwar to contest the position.

Prior to nominations on Sunday, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had repeatedly denied existence of "camps" within the party.

The PKR election will commence on Aug 24, and take place over nine weeks.

Results are expected to be announced in November.