The transitional leadership line-up of Parti Keadilan Rakyat the upcoming merged party of Keadilan and Parti Rakyat Malaysia is expected to be finalised by year end.

Keadilan secretary-general Sahri Bahari said the new line-up will be revealed on Jan 18 by Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and PRM president Dr Syed Husin Ali.

Sahri said both parties have prepared their suggestions for the 60-member line-up.

However, he declined to reveal further details of the new structure.

It is widely expected that Wan Azizah will be leader of the new party, while Syed Husin will fill the deputy president post.

Important role

"It's easier than I thought. We expected a few rounds of meetings before we could finalise anything but the atmosphere on both sides has been very positive," he said when contacted.

"This new line-up will play an important role. Most of the our political activities would be spearheaded by this new line-up," he said.

But until the Registrar of Societies approves the newly merged party, Sahri said, the status quo of each party would remain.

Currently, the Keadilan supreme council comprises 55 members 14 executive members, 20 elected supreme council members, seven appointed ones and 14 liaison chiefs.

Keadilan managed to obtain a two-thirds majority vote in its November annual general meeting in Sungai Petani, Kedah, to amend the party's constitution in relation to the merger, despite objections from the 22 delegates who walked out during the voting process.

The constitutional amendments to be made included the adoption of the new name for the merged party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and the incorporation of red stripes on the left and right sides of Keadilan's turquoise blue symbol, to reflect PRM's presence.

The merger has been stalled for over a year as Keadilan failed to get two-thirds of its delegates to agree to amending the party's constitution at its annual meet in Kemaman last year.

Negotiations with DAP

In a related matter, Keadilan vice-president Azmin Ali said that he has spoken to DAP publicity chief Ronnie Liu on future cooperation on seat allocations come the next general election.

DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock had recently sent a letter to Keadilan on this matter as well.

Azmin, who is Hulu Kelang state assembly representative, said the two parties have started their preliminary discussions via telephone.

"The mood on the ground is that we must start negotiations with DAP to thrash out whatever problems we have on seat allocations," said Azmin.

Commenting on the issue, however, Sahri said decisions on Keadilan-DAP cooperation should only be made after Barisan Alternatif has discussed the matter.

He said state branches are drawing up their desired constituencies, and the list would be ready by year end.