Kuala Lumpur: The PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) party’s constitution stipulates that the party’s president shall only serve a maximum of three terms. Currently, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is in his second term as the party’s national leader.
PKR party elections are scheduled for next year. If Anwar is re-elected as President again in the upcoming party election, it would be his third and final term.
In this context, there are speculations that several constitutional amendments will be proposed at the upcoming annual delegates conference of PKR scheduled to be held in December 2024. There is no official announcement as to what these amendments are and whether these amendments will include an extension of the term limit for the national president.
Even if Anwar is not elected as the president he can still continue as Prime Minister without any complications. This is because the Prime Minister requires majority support from Members of Parliament, and one does not need to be a party leader to assume this position. A notable example of this is Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, who served as Prime Minister while holding the position of Vice President of UMNO.
In this regard, the recent constitutional amendment passed by the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component party of Barisan Nasional is also relevant. MIC’s constitution stipulated that the president can only serve a maximum of 3 terms, each lasting three years. However, this constitutional rule was removed at this year’s MIC general assembly, allowing the national leader to serve indefinitely as he pleased, or until he is defeated in an election.
Whether a similar constitutional amendment would be proposed at the forthcoming annual general assembly of PKR, is yet to be seen. Sources said, there are also proposals to amend PKR’s constitution on election procedures and rules.
-R.Mutharasan
