Zaid Ibrahim - Politician in Parti Keadilan Rakyat

Politician in Parti Keadilan Rakyat

In June 2009 Zaid joined the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). As part of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance, Zaid was appointed to head the coalition's Common Policy Framework group where he was responsible for formulating a common manifesto and governing policy between the three disparate political parties (PKR, PAS, DAP) that made up the loose opposition alliance. He also headed efforts, in his role as Pakatan coordinator and pro-tem committee chairman of Pakatan Rakyat Malaysia, to register Pakatan Rakyat as an official political coalition party with Malaysia's Registrar of Societies on Nov 3, 2009. During the Hulu Selangor by-election in April 2010, Zaid was also fielded as the PKR candidate, but was narrowly defeated by P. Kamalanathan of the Malaysian Indian Congress.

In the 2010 PKR party elections, Zaid Ibrahim contested for the party post of Deputy President after having received over 30 nominations. He confirmed his candidacy in a posting on his blog on the 16th of October 2010. However, in Nov 2010, Zaid Ibrahim withdrew his candidacy as a sign of protest against serious allegations of fraud and electoral misconduct perpetrated in the PKR party elections by his opponent, the PKR establishment candidate Azmin Ali. He subsequently resigned from the party, citing his loss of confidence in the PKR party leadership for their involvement in the electoral fraud of the 2010 party elections.