Based on unofficial results trickling in from PKR’s headquarters in Tropicana, Petaling Jaya, party vice-president Azmin Ali takes the lead for the first time in the race for the deputy president’s post.

NONE Azmin is leading with 3,172 votes by midnight, to Pakatan Rakyat coordinator Zaid Ibrahim's 2,470 while Mustaffa Kamil Ayub slowly catches up with 1,091.

The states that saw PKR divisions meeting today are Penang (6 divisions), Perak (8), Pahang (7), Malacca (4) and Negeri Sembilan (2).

The following is the unofficial tally of the overall number of votes for the three deputy presidential candidates, after taking into account the tallies from PKR headquarters of the six divisions close to midnight:

Azmin Ali - 3,172

Zaid Ibrahim - 2,470

Mustaffa Kamil Ayub - 1,091

azlan The polls began on Friday in its first-ever direct elections that will be conducted over four weekends until Nov 21.

Other than the hotly-contested deputy president post, four vice-presidents and 20 supreme council posts are also up for grabs.

Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has retained the party presidency unopposed.

Meanwhile, 17 candidates will vie for vice-presidency and 132 for the supreme council posts.

Malaysiakini yesterday reported the following as the number of votes obtained by candidates for the vice-president (four seats).

Nurul Izzah Anwar - 649

Mansor Othman - 610

Fuziah Salleh - 506

Tian Chua - 489

N Gabalakrishnan - 393

R Sivarasa - 348

Suresh Kumar - 219

Dr Xavier Jayakumar - 176

Baru Bian - 146

Jonson Chong - 145

Ansari Abdullah - 91

Yusmadi Yusoff - 91

Yahya Sari - 68

Dominique Ng - 53

S Manikavasagam - 49

Saiman Marjuki - 36

James Ghani - 31